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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25590781">Trap</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrinahEke/pseuds/TrinahEke'>TrinahEke</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Doctor Who (2005)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 05:02:18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>21,707</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25590781</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrinahEke/pseuds/TrinahEke</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>This is set between The Timeless Children and Revolution of the Daleks in a Universe where the Doctor didn't get captured by the Judoon and thrown into a prison cell. </p><p>Alternate Timeline.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The Doctor walked around the console to read the message. Her face drained of emotion for a moment. Graham had noticed.<br/>
“Something wrong Doc?” Graham asked.<br/>
“No, no...it's fine...just an old friend died...well not really a friend.” she replied.<br/>
“I'm sorry to hear that.” replied Graham.<br/>
“It's just, I thought there was more time.” said the Doctor.<br/>
“Is there a funeral or a wake?” asked Graham.<br/>
The Doctor looked momentarily alarmed, she grabbed the keyboard and started typing. “OK, that's...good I suppose.” she furrowed her brow as she studied the readout on the screen.<br/>
Graham moved to see what she was looking at but she quickly cleared the screen.<br/>
“I'm going to have to drop you all home for a bit.” she announced.</p>
<p>Half an hour later Graham, Yaz and Ryan were saying goodbye to the Doctor.<br/>
“Whatever it is we could help.” said Yaz.<br/>
“It's not something you can help with, I have to do this alone. I'll be back, you know me.” the Doctor replied.<br/>
Yaz nodded, gave the Doctor a hug and left the TARDIS.<br/>
“See ya later then Doctor.” said Ryan before joining Yaz outside the TARDIS.<br/>
“I have this horrible feeling in my gut.” said Graham.<br/>
“Hunger?” teased the Doctor.<br/>
“You know what I mean. Are you sure about this?” he asked.<br/>
“Yes, absolutely. It's a few days, then I'll be back. Promise.” she replied.<br/>
“OK, if you're sure.” replied Graham before giving her a hug. Graham stepped towards the door.<br/>
“Graham?” the Doctor called. Graham turned. “Stay out of trouble.”<br/>
“You know me Doc.” he replied with a grin before exiting the TARDIS.</p>
<p>Graham, Yaz and Ryan silently watched at the TARDIS dematerialised without them.<br/>
“Do you think she'll be OK?” asked Yaz.<br/>
“Course she will.” replied Graham. “Our place, cuppa tea?” he suggested. Yaz nodded.<br/>
“I hope the milk's still fresh, I remember last time.” said Ryan.<br/>
“Better get some on the way.” replied Graham.<br/>
The three off them took a last look at where the TARDIS had been and set off in search of milk.</p>
<p>The Doctor pressed a button on the console, information filled the screen. 'NAME: SUSAN FOREMAN. DATE OF DEATH: 26 AUGUST 2234. AGE: 81 YEARS: CAUSE OF DEATH: BLUNT FORCE TRAUMA. ADDITIONAL NOTES: INJURIES CONSISTENT WITH IMPACT WITH LARGE VEHICLE TRAVELLING IN EXCESS OF 30MPH.'<br/>
“That's not right.” said the Doctor to herself. She grabbed the keyboard and started typing. The display moved to fill the right hand half the screen, another set of data filled the other half. The data on the left read, 'NAME: SUSAN FOREMAN. DATE OF DEATH: 29 NOVEMBER 2239. AGE 86 YEARS: CAUSE OF DEATH: NATURAL CAUSES. NO AUTOPSY REQUESTED.'<br/>
The Doctor typed again, the data on the screen changed. 'NAME: DAVID CAMPBELL. DATE OF DEATH: 26 AUGUST 2234. AGE: 84 YEARS. CAUSE OF DEATH: BLUNT FORCE TRAUMA. ADDITIONAL NOTES: INJURIES CONSISTENT WITH IMPACT WITH LARGE VEHICLE TRAVELLING IN EXCESS OF 30MPH.'<br/>
She typed again, the data moved to the right side of the screen, more data appeared on the left. 'NAME: DAVID CAMPBELL. DATE OF DEATH: 22 APRIL 2235. AGE: 85 YEARS. CAUSE OF DEATH: NATURAL CAUSES. NO AUTOPSY REQUESTED.'<br/>
The Doctor hit a button on the console and the screen cleared. She set co-ordinates and engaged the time rotor. </p>
<p>17 March 2235. Rosehill Cemetery.</p>
<p>The Doctor studied the gravestone. 'DAVID CAMPBELL AGED 84. AND HIS WIFE SUSAN FOREMAN AGED 81. TOGETHER IN LIFE, TOGETHER IN DEATH.'<br/>
“I'm sorry.” said the Doctor. “I always meant to come back, I thought I had more time. The timeline changed somehow and I can't change it. I want to, I really want to, but I can't.” She stood in silence for a moment then turned and walked across the cemetery towards the waiting TARDIS.</p>
<p>“So where are we Doc?” asked Graham.<br/>
“No idea.” replied the Doctor cheerfully.<br/>
“So we're going in blind.” said Graham. Ryan groaned at the bad joke. Yaz suppressed a giggle.<br/>
“It's good to have the gang back together.” said the Doctor with a smile. “Ready for an adventure?” she said unlocking the door. Yaz and Ryan looked at each before racing each other to the door.<br/>
“Wait for us.” said Graham shaking his head. The Doctor and Graham walked to the door, Yaz and Ryan were already outside. The Doctor stepped through the door followed by Graham.<br/>
They had landed in a pretty clearing in the woods. There was a well trodden path which cut through the clearing. The sun was shining, weather wise it was a perfect day.<br/>
“This is nice.” said Graham.<br/>
“Yes, it is Graham.” replied the Doctor masking her disappointment that they hadn't been thrown straight into an adventure. She needed the distraction.<br/>
“We were debating which way to go. Ryan thinks that way,” Yaz pointed at the path leading off to the left of the TARDIS door “and I think that way.” she pointed to the other way.<br/>
“We could flip a coin.” suggested Graham.<br/>
“Follow me, I have a knack for these things.” said the Doctor setting off through the woods ignoring both paths.<br/>
“Isn't there a time and space version of Satnav you could use?” asked Graham.<br/>
“Where's your sense of adventure Graham?” asked the Doctor.<br/>
“I don''t consider getting lost in the woods an adventure.” replied Graham.<br/>
“If we don't find something in...” the Doctor looked at her empty wrist, “I must get a watch...in an hour, we'll turn around and take a path.” </p>
<p>They had been walking for 20 minutes when they encountered a settlement.<br/>
“There you are, see.” The Doctor said to Graham. “Told you I have a knack.”<br/>
“This makes no sense.” said Graham. “Why wouldn't the path lead here?”<br/>
“Graham's right.” said Yaz. “There are no paths in or out, it makes no sense.”<br/>
“Let's find out.” said the Doctor with a furrowed brow.<br/>
The settlement consisted of around a dozen makeshift wooden houses in a semi circle with a large curved stone building completing the circle. The Doctor walked to the exact centre of the settlement, stopped and waited. Graham, Yaz and Ryan joined her.<br/>
“What now?” asked Ryan.<br/>
“We wait.” said the Doctor.<br/>
“Wait for what?” asked Yaz.<br/>
“If four strangers had walked into the middle of your settlement and just stood, what would you do?” asked the Doctor.<br/>
“Investigate.” replied Yaz with a smile.<br/>
“I really hope they don't have pitchforks.” said Graham.<br/>
A door of the stone building opened, a large crudely made wicker basket was placed on the ground outside of the door. A moment later a nun stepped out, as she turned to close the door she spotted the four strangers standing in the middle of the settlement watching her.<br/>
“Good day!” she called to them.<br/>
“At least the locals seem friendly.” said Graham.<br/>
The nun picked up the basket and made her way to them.<br/>
“Welcome to Stone Abbey.” she said.<br/>
“River?” said the Doctor in astonished at seeing River posing as a nun.<br/>
“The abbey doesn't have a river but there is a stream.” the nun replied.<br/>
“Sorry, we haven't introduced ourselves.” said the Doctor recovering her composure. “I'm the Doctor, this is Yaz, Ryan and Graham.” indicated each of them as she introduced them.<br/>
“I am sister Harmony.” replied River.<br/>
The Doctor hadn't expected River to keep up the pretence. She decided to play along for now.<br/>
“So has anything unusual happened around here recently? Strange lights in the sky, killer metal pepper pots, rapid tree growth?” asked the Doctor.<br/>
“The only unusual occurrence has been your visit. We don't get visitors.” River replied.<br/>
“You don't get visitors, how do you get supplies?” asked the Doctor.<br/>
“Everything we need is provided by God's blessed earth.” replied River.<br/>
“How long have you been here?” asked the Doctor.<br/>
“I was born here.” replied River.<br/>
“What's going on?” whispered the Doctor.<br/>
“I don't understand.” replied River.<br/>
“Er, Doc?” said Graham. “Why are you interrogating her.”<br/>
“Because she's not who she's pretending to be. Graham, Yaz, Ryan meet River Song.” she replied.<br/>
“Why pretend to be a nun?” asked Yaz.<br/>
“She's probably working some kind of scam.” replied the Doctor<br/>
“I don't see anything here much worth scamming.” said Ryan.<br/>
The Doctor looked around the settlement, the houses were humble, even the Abbey was of modest design.<br/>
“What are they hiding in there. It must be something really valuable for you to go to these lengths?” the Doctor asked River.<br/>
“We have nothing to hide. You are welcome to see for yourself.” River replied.<br/>
The Doctor leaned in close to River and studied her face. There was no recognition in her eyes. She pulled her sonic screwdriver from her inside pocket and proceeded to scan River. She looked at the readings with a furrowed brow.<br/>
“Is something wrong Doctor?” asked Yaz.<br/>
“These readings are weird. “ the Doctor replied. She scanned Yaz and checked the readings. “I don't understand.”<br/>
Doc?” said Graham.<br/>
The Doctor scanned Graham and Ryan in turn before checking the readings. She scanned, the houses, the abbey, the trees, even the ground beneath their feet.<br/>
“This doesn't make sense.” said the Doctor, panic in her voice. “You're not real, none of you are real, none of this is real.”<br/>
“Of course we're real. Take my hand.” said Graham. The doctor took his hand. “See, I'm real.”<br/>
“No. No you're not.” replied the Doctor backing away from him.<br/>
“Doctor?” said Yaz looking concerned.<br/>
The Doctor backed away further as she did so an alarm went off. None of them seemed to hear it. A moment later there was a voice.<br/>
“She's fighting it Sir.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Budget Shuttle to Appolia City.</p><p>The car was busy, a perfect place to go unnoticed by your fellow commuters, that is what Red and Yellow were counting on. They sat next to each other at the far end of the car.<br/>
“Are you clear on the plan?” asked Red whilst trying to coax her tightly curled, red streaked hair into a hairband.<br/>
“In, grab the info, out, swimming in the floating waters of Eridistra.” replied Yellow mimicking the doggy paddle.<br/>
“You can't swim in the floating waters of Eridistra.” said Red still wrestling with her hair.<br/>
“OK, scratch Eridistra.” Yellow pulled a book titled 'Wonders of the Known Universe' from his pocket and began leafing through the pages. His overgrown yellow tipped hair fell in front of his eyes. He absent mindedly pushed his hair back behind his ear only for it to fall forward again.<br/>
Red Smiled. Yellow had grown in confidence in the 6 months they had been working together. He has signed onto this mission without really knowing what it was all about. She had been deliberately vague, she had to be, he couldn't know, not yet at least. Red decided after this mission was over she would take him to Eridistra and anywhere else he wanted to go, she owed him that.<br/>
“Arriving Appolia City 710201.8.” announced an automated voice. Red checked her watch.<br/>
“2 minutes.” she said.<br/>
Yellow nodded in acknowledgement, closed the guide book and put it back in his pocket. The shuttle journey had been a nice change of pace. In the past 6 months he had been chased, shot at, nearly eaten alive and was almost jettisoned into space, twice. He smiled at the memory of it all, he wouldn't change a thing. It felt like the mission was nearing it's end, Red hadn't said as much but he felt it. Yellow couldn't imagine going back to the life he had before, he had already made the decision he never would. Even if he had to slog his way around the universe working on haulage ships, it would still be better than home.<br/>
The car docked. Red and Yellow joined the steam of people exiting the car, continuing along with the throng until they were well clear of the docking station. They had become adept at blending in with the masses, taking public transport as much as possible.<br/>
Red pulled Yellow into a side alley.<br/>
“Comms.” she instructed.<br/>
They pulled custom made communication devices from Yellow's rucksack. Red's resembled a black stretchy headband, which she wore over her ears. Yellow's were black fabric like covers which enclosed the external part of his ears, emulating the latest fashion in personal music tech.<br/>
“Ready?” asked Red.<br/>
“Always.” replied Yellow.<br/>
“Here we go.” said Red with a glint in her eye.</p><p>***</p><p>Birdsong seeped into the Doctor's consciousness. She sat up abruptly and instantly regretted it, her surroundings swam out of focus. There was pain in the back of her head, touching it she found a large, painful lump.<br/>
“Where am I?” She reached out a hand, tentatively touching the ground beneath her.<br/>
“Grass?” She sniffed the air.<br/>
“Earth.” she said with a smile. Her surrounds came into focus, she was still in Rosehill Cemetery.<br/>
Memories flooded back of Graham, Yaz, Ryan and River, but it wasn't River. None of it had been real.<br/>
She carefully got to her feet and looked around, few metres away stood the TARDIS exactly where she had left her. The Doctor glanced around the cemetery before entering the TARDIS, she reached the console and scanned for anomalies, none were detected.<br/>
“Time to get the gang back together.” she said before setting the controls. The central column of the console began to rise and fall as the TARDIS dematerialised.</p><p>The TARDIS landed on the lawn of a well kept garden. The Doctor stepped out and walked towards the house, before she could reach the back door a familiar voice grabbed her attention.<br/>
“Doctor!” called Graham. The Doctor looked around the garden but couldn't see him.<br/>
“Doctor?” he called again. She realised the voice came from the other side of a 6 foot fence.<br/>
“Graham? What are you doing there?” she asked.<br/>
“What am I...What are you doing next door?” he asked.<br/>
“This isn't your garden?” asked the Doctor.<br/>
“No it isn't. Get the TARDIS out of there, they'll be home any minute.” said Graham.<br/>
“I'll move the TARDIS.” said the Doctor.</p><p>A few minutes later the TARDIS materialised in Graham's garden. The Doctor stepped out onto a patio, Graham was waiting for her at the back door.<br/>
“Have you considered a Satnav?” teased Graham.<br/>
“Anyone can make a mistake Graham.” replied the Doctor. Graham smiled and ushered her inside.<br/>
“You were lucky to catch me in. I was just going to visit Ryan and the kids.” said Graham.<br/>
“Kids?” questioned the Doctor.<br/>
“Yeah, you know, Ryan's kids?” replied Graham. The Doctor studied Graham's face, expecting to see the 'gotcha grin' but there wasn't one. He looked older, much older.<br/>
“How long has it been?” she asked.<br/>
“Since your last visit?” asked Graham. The Doctor nodded. “A couple of years, the twins are 8 now.” The Doctor opened her mouth to say something but at that moment she heard River's voice in her head.<br/>
“Spoilers.” She shouldn't be here, not now anyway, too much foreknowledge.<br/>
“I have to go.” said the Doctor.<br/>
“But you only just got here.” said Graham.<br/>
“Do you remember when my friend died and I dropped you off?” asked the Doctor.<br/>
“Yeah...that was years ago.” replied Graham.<br/>
“That was yesterday.” said the Doctor. “I have to go.” Graham nodded. The Doctor walked out of the house and back to the TARDIS. Once inside she rushed to the console to check the temporal readout panel.<br/>
“That's not possible!” she said. “This can't be 2020.” The panel distorted before her eyes, the readout changed to read 2031. “What just happened? Something's wrong.”<br/>
An alarm sounded.<br/>
“Sir?” called a voice.<br/>
“What is it?” asked a second voice.<br/>
“She's still fighting.” answered the first voice.<br/>
“Increase her Oxytocin level.” instructed the second voice.<br/>
“Yes, Sir.” replied the first.</p><p>***</p><p>“There should be a panel six metres ahead of you.” said Red over the comms.<br/>
“I see it.” replied Yellow. He reached the panel, “It needs a code. “<br/>
“Place the code hacker over the front of the panel.” instructed Red. Yellow slipped his backpack off his shoulders and reached inside.<br/>
“Which one is the code hacker?” he asked.<br/>
“The blue one.” replied Red.<br/>
“Found it.” Yellow placed the reader over the panel, after a few seconds a light on the panel turned blue and a concealed door opened. He retrieved the code hacker quickly dropping it in his rucksack.<br/>
“OK, going through the door now.“ he said hoisting his rucksack back on his shoulders.<br/>
“You have 4 minutes and 30 seconds to reach the next door.” replied Red.<br/>
Yellow emerged into a long corridor, he moved quickly along it turning a corner into another long corridor,, He quickened his pace, at the end of the corridor he was met with a dead end and 3 panels.<br/>
“Red, there are three panels, which one?” he asked.<br/>
“That isn't in the plans...look in your rucksack, there's a device shaped kind of like a rugby ball with spikes...”<br/>
“The pineapple?” asked Yellow.<br/>
“It's not a pineapple...but yes.” replied Red, “Hold it upright, turn it to the left to setting 23.”<br/>
Yellow followed the instructions. Yellow light emitted from the device and shrouded the panels, a moment later the light had changed into three colours.<br/>
“One is green, one is blue, one is red. Which one?” Yellow asked.<br/>
“The red one, use the code hacker.” replied Red.<br/>
Yellow turned the pineapple shaped device off and returned it to the rucksack, retrieving the code hacker as he did so. He used the code hacker as he had on the previous door, the door opened, he retrieved the code hacker dropping it in his rucksack before stepping through. This time he was in a large room full of equidistant lines of data collectors.<br/>
“I'm in.” said Yellow.<br/>
“Look around for a port.” instructed Red.<br/>
Yellow walked between two lines of data collectors looking left and right for a port. He spotted one at the end of the lines.<br/>
“Got one.” he said. Yellow reached into the rucksack, pulling out a portable data device complete with viewing screen and keyboard. He connected it to the port and typed in 'TORTH'. A message appeared on the screen, '0 files contain the keyword 'TORTH'.<br/>
“No hits on TORTH.” said Yellow.<br/>
“Try CODE TORTH.” suggested Red.<br/>
Yellow typed in 'CODE TORTH' this time the search found 231,163 files.<br/>
“There are over two hundred thousand files.” said Yellow.<br/>
“Copy them all.” instructed Red.<br/>
Yellow started the files transfer.<br/>
“We should give the devices names, like the pineapple could called Penelope.” mused Yellow.<br/>
“The code hacker could be called Claire because it clears the path and Blue because it's...blue.” suggested Red. Yellow chuckled. The portable data device emitted a ping to announce it had finished it's task.<br/>
“Files are copied.” said Yellow unplugging the device.<br/>
“Getting out is easier, looks like it never occurred to them their security could be breached.” said Red. “There's a door at the back of the room. After that it's first left, second right, then straight ahead there's an exit door.”<br/>
“First left, second right, exit. Got it, meet you at the rendezvous in 10.” replied Yellow.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The Doctor was tinkering under the console. An alert from the other side of the console drew the her attention. <br/>“What now?” she said to herself. She sighed, got to her feet and went to investigate the sound. The alert was for an incoming message, she opened it. 'You are cordially invited to a Murder Mystery Weekend at The Grand Adgineon Hotel. We have the widest range of Murder Rooms in the Reston Galaxy.' The rest of the message contained dress etiquette and co-ordinates.<br/>“A Murder Mystery Weekend!” said the Doctor excitedly. “I've always wanted to go to a Murder Mystery Weekend.” She set the time and space co-ordinates. Re-reading the message she studied the dress etiquette. “A dress, I have to wear a dress?” She sighed resignedly. “Time to find the wardrobe.”<br/>The Doctor absently walked through the TARDIS interior, she had learned from experience the best way to find something in the TARDIS was not to look for it. A door opened in front of her, she walked through to find the wardrobe. <br/>“Dresses?” she said. A moment later clothes racks rearranged, all the items of clothing in front of her were now dresses arranged from white to black with every possible shade in between.<br/>“Thanks pal.” she said to the TARDIS. She browsed the dresses, ignoring the whites, creams and paler colours. There were bold reds, oranges, and yellows that momentarily caught her attention but they weren't what she was looking for. The racks rearranged themselves again, this time she was met with bold multi-coloured dresses. <br/>“That's more like it.” she said. She rejected any dress with flowers, she paused on some stripey dresses but rejected them too, then she found what she was looking for. It wasn't really a dress in the strictest definition but it would pass for one.<br/>“Clever girl.” she said to the TARDIS.<br/>The outfit was a top and trouser set with a flared skirt over the top of the trousers. The seams of the skirt appeared integrated to the rest of the outfit, making it indistinguishable from a dress. The Doctor quickly changed into the outfit and examined herself in the mirrors.<br/>“It's perfect.” she said as she viewed it from all angles. The top and trousers were black, the skirt was a rainbow design, graduating from red through orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue,purple to black.<br/>The Doctor rifled through the pockets of her discarded clothes, picked only the items she deemed essential, the sonic screwdriver and psychic paper. She wanted to take more but the pockets of her new outfit wouldn't accommodate them. Sighing she left the wardrobe and headed back to the console room.</p>
<p>The TARDIS landed a safe distance from the hotel, the Doctor didn't want to attract attention by accidentally landing on their lawn. She stepped out onto damp ground littered with twigs and yellowing leaves. The twigs crunched under her boots as she walked towards the hotel giving way to damp grass, she was glad she had decided to keep her boots and not succumb to the  convention of wearing heels. <br/>The hotel was a mixture of architectural designs, Ancient Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Gothic and Art Deco. It was part of an Ancient Earth architectural revival that although popular was in almost all case, done poorly, sadly this was another example.<br/>The Doctor entered the hotel arriving in a large lobby. Porters stood by ready to take luggage to rooms, whilst a woman who was clearly the hotel manager called out names. One of the names immediately caught her attention.<br/>“Melody Williams?” the manager called.<br/>“Hello.” said a familiar voice. The Doctor shifted her position until she could see the owner of the voice, River Song.<br/>“And finally, John Smith?” called the manager looking around for a response. The Doctor realised it was River who had sent the invite.<br/>“Here.” she replied. This time it was River who shifted position to see who had answered, the Doctor waved at her. River seemed puzzled.<br/>“That's odd.” said the manager, “There are thirteen names here, there should only be twelve.”<br/>The Doctor eased her way through the people chatting excitedly in the lobby until she reached River. <br/>“I assume there's a reason you sent me the invite.” The Doctor said.<br/>“Who are you?” demanded River. It was the Doctor's turn to look puzzled.<br/>“Oh sorry, I forgot.” said the Doctor, “Regenerated. Definite improvement.” River smiled. She stepped back and appraised the Doctor.<br/>“So you're a woman now.” said River flirtatiously. <br/>“Why are we here?” asked the Doctor. “I assume it's not just for fun.” River took the Doctor by the arm and led her to a quiet corner.<br/>“A friend...well an acquaintance really came here for a Murder Mystery Weekend and never returned. I did a bit of digging, no-one ever returns.” River explained.<br/>“No-one?” asked the Doctor. <br/>“Not a one.” replied River. “The Hotel swears they all leave alive and well, even provided proof but I don't believe in coincidence. Wherever did you find that dress?” The Doctor ignored the question.<br/>“Are we undercover? The Doctor asked excitedly. “I always wanted to go undercover.”<br/>“You took the words right out of my mouth.” replied River flirtatiously. A porter approached them.<br/>“May I take your luggage.” he asked.<br/>“I travel light.” replied River. The porter looked momentarily puzzled. <br/>“Yes ma'am.” he replied turning his attention to the Doctor.<br/>“No luggage either, sorry.” said the Doctor. The porter nodded and left.<br/>“Shall we go find our room?” asked River.<br/>“Oh, I hope there are bunk beds, or even better, hammocks.” replied the Doctor.<br/>“I think we're going to be too busy to sleep.” replied River.<br/>“Yes!” replied the Doctor. “Investigating. What do you think is going on here?” <br/>“I have been wondering that myself.” replied River with a hint of sarcasm.<br/>“OK, let's find somewhere quieter and you can show me what you have so far.” suggested the Doctor.<br/>“So close.” muttered River. “You were late so I have the room key, come on.” she replied.</p>
<p>A few minutes later they were in their hotel room.<br/>“I hacked the hotel, of course.” said River. “Their records are spotless which is very suspicious in of itself. They all pay a 20% tip. Some of these people are super rich high society, they would never pay a 20% tip.”<br/>“You said there was proof of them leaving the hotel.” said the Doctor.<br/>“Yes.” River pulled a viewing device from a pouch on her belt. “Some of them were missed, enquiries were made. The hotel provided footage of them leaving.” she replied as she accessed the footage. “There.” she handed the Doctor the device. <br/>“There's something wrong with this footage.” said the Doctor. <br/>“I ran every test I can think of. It's genuine. That's why I sent you the invite.” replied River. <br/>“We need a plan.” said the Doctor. “Is there an itinerary for this Murder Mystery Weekend?” River pulled up the itinerary on her device.<br/>“Meet and greet cocktails at 6pm followed by dinner at 7.30pm...which reminds me, I have your character packet.” River pulled a packet from a pouch on her belt and handed it to the Doctor. The Doctor read with interest.<br/>“I am supposed to shy and retiring with a hint of secrecy.” the Doctor read aloud.<br/>“Secrecy you can do. Shy and retiring, in that dress?” replied River.<br/>“So what was in your character packet?” asked the Doctor.<br/>“Spoilers.” replied River with a smile. </p>
<p>Half an hour later the Doctor and River arrived for cocktails. They had decided to follow the evening's itinerary, planning to learn what they could before searching the off limit areas of the hotel when everyone was asleep. They didn't learn much from the other guests, most of them had been pretty drunk when they arrived. River had spent the evening trying to get investors for a pyramid scheme. The Doctor couldn't tell whether it was her weekend character or one of River's sidelines.</p>
<p>“I think I managed to pull of shy and retiring.” said the Doctor once they were back in their hotel room. <br/>“It's adorable how clueless you are.” replied River with a laugh.<br/>“We have a few hours before we can be sure everyone's asleep.” said the Doctor. She felt in her pockets before remembering she didn't have her trusted jacket or trousers. “I didn't bring a pack of cards, do you have a pack?”<br/>“Why do want a pack of cards?” asked River.<br/>“We're going to need something to do to pass the time.” replied the Doctor.<br/>“Well I am sure we can think of something.” said River flirtatiously.</p>
<p>It was almost half past three in the morning when River and the Doctor, minus her brightly coloured skirt emerged from their room and began creeping through the hotel. River had found a blueprint for the hotel and they were planning where to search first.<br/>“I think we should start in the manager's office.” whispered the Doctor.<br/>“Haven't you seen any horror movies?” whispered River. “The bodies are always in the basement.”<br/>“If the guests never leave, the manager knows something.”  the Doctor whispered.<br/>“OK manager's office first, then the basement.” replied River still whispering.<br/>The manager's office was located behind the front desk which was manned by a Dinlodian. The Dinlodians were a species renowned for their tough negotiating skills, she was surprised to see one manning a reception desk. The Doctor peered around the corner trying to work out a way to get the receptionist out of sight of the front desk.<br/>“OK, if we...” the Doctor turned to see River applying lipstick. “Or we could do...that.” <br/>“Wait here, I'll call you when it's clear.” said River before walking to the front desk. After a few minutes the Doctor looked around the corner, both River and the receptionist were missing and the manager's office door was wide open. She walked into the reception area, around the front desk and into the manager's office. River was going through the manager's desk while the Dinlodian sat dazed in the manager's chair with lipstick smeared across his face.<br/>“What took you so long?” said River still searching the desk.<br/>“You were supposed to call me.” replied the Doctor. “Did you find anything?”<br/>“A nice bottle of Brandy hidden in the bottom draw of filing cabinet. The manager obviously doesn't know that's the first place anyone looks.” replied River.<br/>“Anything useful in the files?” asked the Doctor. River pulled a file from the cabinet and handed it to the Doctor. The file folder label read, 'Guest Complaints'. The Doctor opened it, it was empty. <br/>“They're all like that.” said River. “Some have blank sheets of paper in them, but no actual files.”<br/>“So this whole place is a sham.” said the Doctor. “Time to take a look at the basement.”<br/>According to the hotel blueprints the basement stairs were located at the far end of the dining room. The Doctor pulled out her sonic screwdriver and scanned the panel lined wall.<br/>“It's the 4th panel from the right.” said the Doctor. River walked to the panel and felt around the edges for a release mechanism. <br/>“I can't find the release.” said River. The Doctor walked to the panel, pointed her sonic screwdriver and was met by a satisfying clunk as the mechanism released. The Doctor and River manually slid the panel to the side before descending the stairs to the basement. <br/>The gloomily lit basement spread out in front of them. There was a line of large incinerators along one wall.<br/>“That's a lot of incinerators for one hotel.” said River.<br/>“I think we know how they are disposing of the evidence.” replied the Doctor. They passed the incinerators as they walked further into the basement. River had produced a powerful torch from her belt to combat the gloom, few metres ahead the could see luggage. River pulled a suitcase to one side, laid it on the floor and opened it. Inside were men's clothing, shoes and basic toiletries. She pulled aside another case opening it, inside were designer dresses, designer shoes, expensive jewellery and high end toiletries. <br/>“These dresses and jewellery are expensive but the first case...not worth much.” replied River.<br/>“This doesn't make any sense. Why keep all of this?” said the Doctor.<br/>“Trophies?” suggested River.<br/>“Maybe one of two items, but all of it?” replied the Doctor.<br/>“Maybe these are just the latest and they haven't processed them yet. We should keep looking.”  suggested River. The Doctor nodded. River lifted her torch high in the air trying to locate a route through the luggage but all they could see was more luggage into the distance.<br/>“There's something wrong...”<br/>An alarm sounded making the Doctor jump, River didn't seem to have heard it. There was a voice. <br/>“Increase her Oxytocin level.”<br/>“Yes Sir.”</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>“The files mention objects but doesn't identify them. Object A, maximum security, level 9. Object B, maximum security, level 9. Object C, maximum security, sub level 2. That's it, no location.” said Yellow.<br/>“Maximum security, minimum detail.” Red sighed. “Try something with a lower security rating. Shipping manifests.”<br/>“Clever. OK, on it.” replied Yellow as he typed 'shipping manifest' into the portable data device. “There's a lot of files...” he trailed off as he skimmed file after file. “I have something.” Red moved closer to read the screen. She patted Yellow.<br/>“We have the location.” she said with a smile.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The room was buzzing, there were several conversations happening at once. The Doctor meandered around the room.<br/>
“I assure you Madam, we have never met!” Three said to Missy.<br/>
“You are such a tease.” replied Missy.<br/>
The Doctor laughed.</p><p>***</p><p>Red and Yellow studied the facilities blueprints.<br/>
“We have the layout but we have no idea what their security is like.” said Yellow.<br/>
“Personnel files?” suggested Red.<br/>
Yellow did a keyword search on 'Personnel'. “17 results.” said Yellow. He opened a file, “Medical technician.”<br/>
“Open another.” said Red.<br/>
Yellow opened each of the files, the personnel were all in he medical field.<br/>
“That's odd.” said Yellow. “No managers, no security...”<br/>
“They're relying on their security systems.” replied Red with a smile.<br/>
“We need to know exactly what we'll be up against.” replied Yellow searching the files again.</p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>“What we need is some music, liven the place up a bit.” said Twelve. “I brought my guitar.”<br/>
“I have my recorder. We could play together...that is...so to speak...” suggested Two.<br/>
“Why not.” replied Twelve.<br/>
“I could play the spoons.” offered Seven.<br/>
“If we could find a harp from somewhere, I know a good tune.” added Five.<br/>
“We could form a band, go on the road.” said Twelve before playing a chord on his electric guitar.<br/>
“Oh my word.” said Two with his hands clamped over his ears.<br/>
The Doctor laughed.</p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>“Code panels, dummy code panels that trigger the alarms if access is attempted and this?” said Yellow. Red stared at the screen.<br/>
14 pressure plates...but no explosives?” asked Red.<br/>
“None.” he replied.<br/>
“We need to go through every shipping manifest file again.” said Red. Yellow groaned</p><p>***</p><p>“You will obey me.” said Magister to River.<br/>
River smiled at Magister's attempts to hypnotise her.<br/>
She puled lipstick from a pouch on her belt and applied it to her lips.<br/>
“Give me a kiss.” said River. Magister recoiled in horror.<br/>
The Doctor laughed.</p><p>***</p><p>“84 decorative floor tiles...2020  fire doors...2034 spring loaded hinges...30 fire...” said Yellow in a bored tone as he read the 332nd manifest list.<br/>
“Spring loaded hinges...” interrupted Red.<br/>
“What about them?” asked Yellow.<br/>
“There are too many. 2020 fire doors, 2034 spring loaded hinges.” replied Red excitedly.<br/>
“Spares?” suggested Yellow.<br/>
“14 extra spring door hinges, 14 pressure plates and 84 decorative floor tiles.” said Red.<br/>
“Floor tiles?” asked Yellow.<br/>
“14 sets of 6 tiles.” replied Red. “Trap doors!” she laughed.<br/>
“Trap doors.” repeated Yellow. “Who are these people?”</p><p>***</p><p>“Do you remember when the daleks were chasing you through time and space?” Donna asked One.<br/>
“Yes of course...” One began.<br/>
“World of Dreams?” Donna said, she laughed, a loud, ear assaulting laugh.<br/>
War was bemused, One was perplexed.<br/>
“Young woman, I fail to see what is so amusing.” said One.<br/>
“I f I am not mistaken.” said War. “You are.”<br/>
Donna laughed louder.<br/>
The Doctor laughed.</p><p>***</p><p>Yellow kept watch while Red worked on the security screen in the reception area of the foyer. They had opted to pose as security guards for the building. Red's plan involved clearing the building of all personnel with a hazardous chemical alarm. Security guards checking the building was successfully evacuated should avoid any suspicions about their presence. Red had somehow managed to fit all of her long hair inside her helmet, Yellow's didn't seem to want to be contained.<br/>
The alarm sounded.<br/>
“Ready?” shouted Red. “Mask up.” Yellow pulled a gas mask from his belt loop and put it on. Red did the same. Within a minute personnel emerged from stairwells into the foyer. Yellow held an external door open, while Red directed personnel to the door.<br/>
“That's everyone.” said Red as the last person exited the building. Yellow closed and locked the doors.<br/>
They headed for the stairs. Once inside Red and Yellow removed their masks and helmets. They had had to travel light, Yellow had the portable data device tucked inside his jacket, the code hacker and comms were in his pocket. Red had been wearing her comms under her helmet.<br/>
“Ready?” asked Red. Yellow nodded.<br/>
“I hacked the system, I managed to convince the building we are running a hazardous chemical clean up drill. We have two hours.” explained Red. “She's somewhere on level 9. Stay on comms.”<br/>
“Aren't we going together?” asked Yellow.<br/>
“I have to go down to the sub level 2, we haven't got much time. You need to trust me.” replied Red.<br/>
Yellow nodded and smiled, he checked his watch before heading up the stairs. Red watched him climb the first flight of stairs, she took a deep breath before heading down to the sub levels.</p><p>***</p><p>The Doctor sat at the table watching her former selves. Seven was throwing peas at Six whenever he looked the other way. Ten and Eleven were synchronised eating. Three was pouring himself some wine. Four was trying to knock a banana out of the fruit bowl using his yoyo. One was looking disparagingly at the fish fingers and custard Eleven was eating. Two stuffed jelly babies into his pockets whenever Four wasn't looking. Twelve was scanning a pear with his sonic screwdriver. Five took a piece of celery from the table replacing the piece in his lapel. Eight was touching his long hair and frowning. The Doctor smiled.</p><p>***</p><p>Yellow reached level 9, he pulled the portable data device from within his jacket, pulled up the floor schematics, identifying the genuine code panels from the dummy ones. Carefully walking around the decorative floor he headed for the panel. He pulled the code hacker from his pocket, applying it to the panel, the door slid open. In front of him was a long corridor with a lot of doors.<br/>
“At least there aren't any panels.” he mumbled to himself as he headed for the nearest door.</p><p>Red had finally reached sub level 2. The stairs had only gone as far as sub level 1,.Sub level 2 had been accessible only through a locked door on sub level 1. She had brought a second, smaller but cruder code hacker for the purpose. It had taken longer than the one Yellow had.<br/>
Sub level 2 was a large storage area. It was filled with rows of cages containing shipping containers, the cages were secured with code panels. The cages were too small to house what she was looking for, she looked around for a good vantage point, searching each row would take too long. There was a cage against a nearby wall, she decided to climb it.<br/>
The TARDIS was located a few rows over from where she had entered the storage area. She made her way to the TARDIS giving her a friendly pat before producing a key. Once inside she headed straight to the console. </p><p>Yellow had looked in 5 rooms, he was getting used to finding empty rooms. The sixth room wasn't empty. Inside was a medical bed, medical machines with tubes and leads. On the bed was a petite figure. He moved closer, it was a woman with blonde hair barely visible under a metal helmet with wires running from it to a nearby machine.<br/>
“Red, I've found her.” he said. “She's hooked up to a bunch of machines.</p><p>***</p><p>“Having fun?” asked a voice sarcastically. The Doctor turned to see Nine sitting across the table from her.<br/>
“What are you doing?” he asked. The Doctor was puzzled.<br/>
“Is this it then, a happy little dream?” Nine asked. The rest of the table faded from view, only Nine remained.<br/>
“I...” she managed.<br/>
“You gave up.” he said accusingly.<br/>
“No.” she replied.<br/>
“Fighting got harder so you ran away to hide.” he said standing up and leaning in close to her face.<br/>
She shook her head, pain shot through the back of her head.<br/>
“WAKE UP!” The Doctor jumped out of her seat. </p><p>***</p><p>“Is there anything attacked to her head?” asked Red.<br/>
“Yeah, there a metal helmet with wires attached to a machine.” replied Yellow.<br/>
“You need to turn off the machine exactly as I say.” replied Red.<br/>
“I can't just switch it off?” asked Yellow.<br/>
“No, we don't want to fry her brain.” replied Red.<br/>
The woman groaned. As Yellow watched her eyes opened.<br/>
“Red, she's awake.” said Yellow.<br/>
“Don't let her remove that helmet.” insisted Red.<br/>
“Hello. It's OK, I just need to...please keep still.” said Yellow to the woman.<br/>
The woman remained still while Yellow flipped switches under Red's instruction.<br/>
“Are there any more indicator lights on?” asked Red.<br/>
“Just the power light.” replied Yellow.<br/>
“OK, turn off the power and carefully remove the helmet, we have no idea how long that things been on her.” instructed Red.<br/>
“Can you sit up?” he asked the woman. She awkwardly got into an upright position with help from Yellow.<br/>
I'm going to take this off. I need you to keep still.” said Yellow gently.<br/>
He removed the helmet slowly, gently release strands of hair that had become stuck.<br/>
“There.” he said. “All done.”<br/>
“Thank you.” the woman managed to croak before slumping back onto the bed. Her face which had been pale, now had an amber glow.<br/>
“Red, she's glowing.” said Yellow.<br/>
“Back away from her.” instructed Red.<br/>
“What's happening?” asked Yellow.<br/>
“She's regenerating.” replied Red. “You have to get back!”<br/>
Yellow remained motionless, transfixed by the sight, as the glowing intensified.<br/>
“Get away from her!” yelled Red.<br/>
Yellow removed his ear covers holding them in his hand.<br/>
“Yellow! You have to get back!” Red yelled over the comms.<br/>
“Move back.” the woman croaked.<br/>
Yellow backed away with his eyes fixed on the woman. The light intensified, becoming blinding. Yellow used his free hand to shield his eyes. He watched fascinated as the woman's features changed. Fascination turned to shock as the new face appeared.<br/>
A rumbling, whining sound filled the air, a tall blue box faded into view in the corner of the room. The woman with a new face leapt off the bed and ran towards the blue box. The blue boxes door opened in anticipation. The woman ran inside, a few seconds later the blue box had disappeared.<br/>
Yellow stood watching the spot where the blue box had stood with his mouth open, unable to speak or move.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Six months earlier. He desperately looked for somewhere to hide, they were gaining on him, if he didn't find somewhere soon...well he didn't want to think about what they would do. The old factory was ahead, he might be able to lose them in there or at least find somewhere to hide. He could see a side entrance, the door was hanging off, he scrambled inside, turned and peered out. The gang of 5 teenage boys ran into view, they stopped and looked around, one of them pointed at the factory. He needed to hide. <br/>The factory was open plan, he could see office windows at one end, he headed for them. A rumbling noise filled the air, he looked behind him expecting to see one of the abandoned machines stirring to life but there was no movement. The rumbling was joined by a whining noise, he kept going, turning a corner to see the interior of a office. Inside a large blue box faded into view, he froze. One of the door opened and out half walked/half fell a woman with tightly curled hair and red highlights. She looked around and spotted him.<br/>“Yellow?” she said obviously surprised by his choice of hair colour.<br/>“Red!” he replied. The woman seemed momentarily puzzled.<br/>Behind him the voices of the gang drew closer. He kept his eyes fixed on her, hoping the game wouldn't find him.<br/>“Can you see her?” one of them asked. <br/>“She's not over here.” replied another.<br/>The woman looked behind him, trying to see the owners of the voices. <br/>“Are you in trouble?” she asked him. He nodded. She stepped back through the door of the blue box and gestured him inside. Desperate for somewhere to hide he stepped inside.<br/>The woman closed the door behind him.<br/>“You'll be safe in here, they can't get in.” she said.<br/>He looked around the impossible interior. Part of him knew that he was hallucinating. He decided to go with it, reality would reinsert itself soon enough.<br/>“We don't have to stay here.” she said. “This is a ship, I can take you anywhere you want to go.” <br/>“Take me away, anywhere but here.” he replied. She walked to the centre of the room, pulled a level and the rumbling, whining noise filled the air.<br/>“There's someone I need to find, I have no idea where she is. I could use some help...if you're interested...” she said.<br/>“OK.” he said, “What do I call you?”<br/>“Call me Red.” she replied. He smiled for the first time since they had met.<br/>“Call me Yellow.” he replied.</p><p>***</p><p>“Yellow.” said Red as she entered the room. “Yellow, can you hear me?”<br/>Yellow slumped to the floor. Red sat down in front of him.<br/>“I know it's a lot to take in.” she said. <br/>“She's you...how...?” Yellow managed to say.<br/>“I...my species...If we get mortally wounded we don't die, we regenerate. New face, new body, new personality.” she explained.<br/>“Why didn't you tell me?” asked Yellow.<br/>“I couldn't because I didn't.” she replied. Yellow looked puzzled.<br/>“I'm not explaining this very well. OK, from my perspective, I woke up in that room and you were there, you saved me. You didn't know who I was. You watched me regenerate, you weren't scared, you were excited...until the moment you saw this face. You recognised me, but you had no idea I was coming. Then I traveled in the TARDIS and the first person I see...” explained Red.<br/>“Me.” said Yellow.<br/>“Then I was the one who recognised you, but you didn't know me. I called you Yellow and you called me Red. That's when I knew, I was the one yelling in the comms, I was Red. I couldn't tell you until we had closed the loop.”<br/>“The loop?” asked Yellow.<br/>“It's a temporal paradox...” began Red<br/>“A temporal paradox? Like Terminator?” asked Yellow.<br/>“I still haven't seen Terminator.” replied Red.<br/>“A killer machine called a terminator is sent back to the past to kill the resistance leader's mother, Sarah Connor before he is born. The resistance leader, John Connor sends a resistance fighter, Kyle Reese to save her. Reese is John Connor's father. He had to send him back.” explained Yellow.<br/>“Exactly like that.” replied Red with a smile. <br/>“So all this time, you knew we were coming here?” asked Yellow.<br/>“Yes. I didn't know where here was, that's what the last six months have been about, closing the loop.” replied Red.<br/>Yellow didn't speak.<br/>“How about we start over. Hello I'm the the Doctor, I travel in Time and Space.” said the Doctor. Yellow smiled weakly.<br/>“I don't want to go back.” he said quietly.<br/>“Go back where?” asked the Doctor.<br/>“Home...where we met. I don't want to go back, drop me off at a space port.” replied Yellow.<br/>“You want to leave?” asked the Doctor.<br/>“No...I just thought... the loops closed...” replied Yellow.<br/>“We could go see the floating waters of Eridistra?” suggested the Doctor. <br/>“What about the people who put you in the machine, don't you want to find them? Get your revenge?” asked Yellow.<br/>“I don't want revenge, not my style. I would like to know who's behind all this, of course. But I don't need to look for them, they will find me in time. They didn't build all of this to give up after one setback. Until they find me, I want to have some fun.” replied the Doctor.<br/>“Aren't you scared of what they'll do next?” asked Yellow.<br/>“People are always after me, you need to know that if you want to travel with me? Up until now it's been safe for you, no-one knew who I was. But now, you will be a target too.” replied the Doctor.<br/>“Same old.” replied Yellow with a smile. The Doctor returned the smile.<br/>“Before we go, I want a quick look around.” said the Doctor.<br/>“What are you looking for?” asked Yellow.<br/>“The third object.” replied the Doctor. “The TARDIS, me and...don't you just hate an unanswered question?” <br/>They walked along the corridor checking rooms as they went. <br/>“I never asked your name? That's probably rude isn't it?” said the Doctor. Yellow laughed.<br/>“You are different, why are you different?” he asked.<br/>“I had to play the part.” replied the Doctor.<br/>“What part?” asked Yellow.<br/>“Red.” replied the Doctor.<br/>“But you are Red, you could have just been yourself.” said Yellow.<br/>“I had to play the Red that you met. I didn't have much to go on admittedly, just some shouting, but she seemed the serious type.” explained the Doctor. <br/>Yellow laughed again, relief washing over him. He has liked Red, but the Doctor seemed more fun. He would stay for as long as she would let him. <br/>“Liam.” he said. The Doctor looked puzzled. “That's my name, Liam.”<br/>“Pleased to meet Liam.” replied the Doctor.<br/>Liam smiled and opened a door, inside was another medical bed the twin of the one the Doctor had been in. A woman was in the bed and hooked up to a machine.<br/>“Red...I mean Doctor?” he said. The Doctor moved to the door to look into the room.<br/>“Susan.” said the Doctor.<br/>“Who's Susan?” asked Liam.<br/>“It's a long story.” replied the Doctor. “I'm not sure it's safe for me to touch any of this equipment. This was a trap for me, I assume there are booby traps. Can you unplug her from the machine?” Liam removed the the tubes and leads from Susan before carefully removing the helmet.<br/>“Done.” he replied moving far away from the bed. <br/>“Thank you.” said the Doctor moving towards Susan. She placed her hands either side of Susan's head and closed her eyes.</p><p>***</p><p>Susan and David Campbell sat on a bench watched their grandchildren run around the park.<br/>“Are you exhausted just watching them?” asked David. Susan laughed. <br/>She thought back to her own childhood on Gallifrey where children were groomed for their future careers from a young age, she couldn't remember being allowed to run around. When her grandfather had wanted to escape the rigidity of Gallifreyan society she has been eager to join him. That was a lifetime ago now, he had promised to come back for her, even now she still believed he would. <br/>When her parents had regenerated their interest in her had waned, their new personalities incomparable with bcaring for a child. Grandfather had stepped in to care for her. They had had many adventures even before they left Gallifrey. He had taken her outside of the city to meet the rebellious Shobogan. They had snuck around the off limits area's of the citadel. It has been so exciting as a child to play in the Lord President's dressing room and pretend to be the Lord High President. <br/>There had been many times over the years she had wanted to talk to her grandfather, she had so many questions. When it has come time for her and David to think about children she had been scared. The thought of creating a Gallifreyan/Human hybrid race on Earth terrified her, they had chosen to adopt.<br/>“We should get them home.” said Susan looking at her watch.<br/>“I'll get them.” he replied sprinting across the park despite his advanced age. Susan got to her feet and collected the children's discarded jackets from the bench. She almost didn't noticed the two figures standing just outside the park, watching her.  David returned with the protesting children.<br/>“We have company.” she whispered. David gave a knowing nod.<br/>After her grandfather had left her with David, they had been faced with the task of rebuilding. The infrastructure had been the easy part, rebuilding governing bodies had proved more challenging. After the defeat of the Daleks, the people had divided into factions many of which had divided into smaller factions. Persuading the factions to accept the interim government had made them enemies, even now there were people who would do them harm. <br/>The interim government had implemented tough rationing as well as mandatory work schedules. Everyone over the age of 10 had been expected to work. Growing food and rebuilding vital infrastructure had been top priorities. The measures had been necessary for survival, but many people still bore a grudge against anyone they deemed to be responsible. Susan and David had been advisers to the interim government, they had also worked, Susan on food production, David on infrastructure but that was conveniently forgotten. <br/>David and Susan flanked the children as they headed out of the park, the figures watched, making no effort to conceal their interest. They walked the two streets to their daughter's home, followed by the figures. Susan took the children inside while David remained in the porch, in the hopes of getting a look at their pursuers. The figures walked past the house, they were a man and a woman, David didn't recognise them. He watched them until they were out of sight and then entered the house.<br/>Two hours later David and Susan left their daughter's house and started the short walk home, their earlier pursuers forgotten. Their route briefly took them along a main road, it was here they again encountered their pursuers. They sighed, expecting a confrontation. <br/>Instead the man grabbed hold of David, as the woman grabbed at Susan. Susan managed to shake her off, the woman grabbed at her again, getting a hold on her coat. Susan deftly slipped out of her coat, turned and pushed the woman, catching her off guard. The woman fell into the road in front of a transport lorry. Susan winced as the lorry made contact with the woman, dragging her along the road a few metres before stopping. <br/>David had been grappling with the man while Susan was eluding the woman, he was having less success. The man managed to release himself from David's grip and shoved him, throwing him off balance. David stepped backwards trying to regain his balance, trod awkwardly onto the edge of the curb and fell into the road. Tires screeched as the approaching car tried to stop in time. The last sound David heard was Susan screaming his name. <br/>The man grabbed hold of Susan and led her away to a waiting car. Susan hadn't resisted, she was too busy replaying David's death in her head. When the man injected her, she didn't even flinch, she couldn't find the energy to care. She welcomed the unconsciousness as it overtook her.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Christmas was Susan's favourite time of the year. She didn't believe in the religious element of it, but David didn't either so it didn't matter. She loved the colour and the Christmas Cheer. The children were excited opening presents, David was as excited as they were.<br/>“Susan.” said a strange voice.<br/>Susan looked around, no-one else had heard the voice.<br/>“Susan.” came the voice again. The room started to spin and blur. Soon she was surrounded by black.<br/>“Susan.” the voice said again. A woman's face faded into view. Susan seemed to know her, although she was certain she had never seen her before. Images flashed before Susan's eyes. Her grandfather smiling, slumping to the floor, regenerating. A second man, still her grandfather but with a different face, then a third, a fourth. She wanted to look away but she couldn't. More faces, each of them her grandfather, a blonde woman standing by a grave, her and David's grave. An ambush, a medical bed surrounded by machines, regeneration. Finally the face of the woman with red highlighted hair appeared in front of her.<br/>“Grandfather.” Susan said.<br/>“I'm so sorry. I thought there was more time. I was always coming back. I wanted you to have that life for as long as possible.” said the woman who was the Doctor.<br/>“I don't...” began Susan, the memories flooded back. David. “David is dead.”<br/>“I know, I'm sorry. I thought you were too, that's what the records said.” replied the Doctor. <br/>“The woman, she was holding my coat...my ID...” Susan tried to explain, instead an action replay appeared around them.<br/>“You were ambushed. It wasn't supposed to happen, David wasn't supposed to...” the Doctor trailed off. “I'm sorry, I can't change any of it.”<br/>“I know.” replied Susan quietly.<br/>“Now you have a choice.” said the Doctor. “This machine, it's fatal. You will die, but you can regenerate, it's your choice.”<br/>“But...I can't regenerate...the Untempered Schism...I never...” said Susan.<br/>“I know. I didn't want you to face that, it's barbaric. But it makes no difference, it's complicated, but you can regenerate if you choose...your family, they think you're dead...” said the Doctor.<br/>“I can never go back.” said Susan quietly.<br/>“I'm sorry.” said the woman. “You were supposed to have more time, time to say goodbye.”<br/>“This isn't your fault.” replied Susan.<br/>“I think maybe it is.” replied the Doctor. “I've made a lot of enemies...this isn't the first trap that's been set for me.”<br/>“I saw all those regenerations, you saved so many people. You never wanted to interfere, that's the path I put you on. David's death is my fault.” said Susan quietly.<br/>“You are not responsible. You were right...every life is valuable, you taught me that. I used to think because their lives were so short they didnt matter, but they mattered more.” said the Doctor. “Your life with David was important.”<br/>Susan cried. <br/>“It hurts.” she whispered through tears.<br/>“It always does.” said the Doctor softly. “The more it hurts the more it was worth having.”<br/>Susan nodded.<br/>“I'm ready.” she said.</p><p>The Doctor opened her eyes and moved away from the bed. <br/>“Is she going to regenerate?” asked Liam.<br/>“I hope so.” said the Doctor.<br/>“So she's the same species as you?” asked Liam.<br/>“She's more than that. She's my granddaugther.” replied the Doctor.<br/>“Just when I thought this day couldn't get any weirder.” replied Liam.<br/>An amber glow engulfed Susan, the Doctor and Liam shielded their eyes as the glow became a blinding light. <br/>Susan, the new Susan, lay on the bed trying to catch her breath. Her new face was much darker.<br/>“Is it always like that?” Susan asked.<br/>“The first time is always the hardest, but, yes, it's always like that.” replied the Doctor.<br/>“Do you have a mirror? Asked Susan. The Doctor felt around in her pockets. Liam walked to a cupboard, opened a few draws until he found something reflective, it was a shiny metal bedpan. He handed it to Susan. Susan held the bedpan in front of her face, examining her new look.<br/>“What do you think, Grandfather? I got terrible sunburn working in the fields, I wanted something...more durable.” said Susan.<br/>“Grand father?” asked Liam.<br/>“It's complicated.” replied the Doctor.<br/>“Our species are gender fluid.” explained Susan.<br/>“Not that complicated, then.” repied Liam. <br/>“We need to leave.” said the Doctor looking at her watch.<br/>“I've missed travelling in the TARDIS.” said Susan.<br/>The Doctor pushed a button on her watch. She looked puzzled and pushed it again.<br/>“What's wrong?” asked Liam.<br/>“This watch is linked to the TARDIS. This button, it's supposed to summon the TARDIS.” said the Doctor. <br/>“So we're taking public transport again?” asked Liam.<br/>“We can't, they would find us. We need to get moving, I'll think of something...” replied the Doctor.<br/>Susan grabbed the Doctor's wrist, touched the watch and closed her eyes. A moment later the familiar rumbling and whining sound filled the air.<br/>“How did you do that?” asked Liam.<br/>“Susan is psychic.” replied the Doctor. She looked at Susan. “I'd forgotten.” Susan smiled.<br/>“Shall we go?” Susan asked rhetorically, already walking to the TARDIS. The door opened automatically and she stepped inside. The Doctor and Liam followed.</p><p>Susan marveled at the interior, it had changed so much since she'd last seen it. She walked to the console.<br/>“I've missed you.” she whispered. The console emitted a soft beep in response.<br/>“Where do you want to go, Liam wants to see the Floating Waters of Eridistra?” asked the Doctor.<br/>“We don't have to...I mean...I don't mind.” stammered Liam.<br/>“Anywhere but Earth.” replied Susan.<br/>“Ditto.” said Liam.<br/>Susan pressed buttons on the console.<br/>“Grandfather, you kept my room. “ Susan said excitedly. “I can't keep calling you Grandfather, it doesn't feel right anymore.”<br/>“Call me, Doctor.” replied the Doctor.<br/>Susan smiled.<br/>“I want to see my room.” Susan walked to the door leading to the depths of the TARDIS, she turned to Liam. “Would you like the tour?” she asked<br/>Liam nodded.<br/>They set off together, leaving the Doctor alone in the console room. <br/>The Doctor smiled to herself as she set the co-ordinates for Eridistra. A wave of guilt hit her,  Graham, Ryan and Yaz were waiting for her return. She was going to abandon them as she had so many before them. They would give up on her in time, she knew that, but it didn't stop her feeling guilty, she pushed it down. She pulled the level, the TARDIS dematerialised.</p><p>Liam followed Susan along identical corridors. He had tried to memorise the route but by his calculations of distance they were walking in circles.<br/>“This place is like a maze.” said Liam.<br/>“It's worse than that, it has changing architecture, it's never quite the same twice.” replied Susan.<br/>“Then how do you find your way around?” asked Liam.<br/>“Being Psychic helps, but it's the TARDIS, once you have been here a little while she can anticipate your needs.” replied Susan. <br/>“Her?” asked Liam.<br/>“The TARDIS is a living thing.” repiled Susan. “Come on I want to see my room.”<br/>Liam followed Susan along the corridor taking a turn to the left. Susan stopped in front of a door, she pushed it open and stepped inside. Liam waited outside, unsure whether he should enter.<br/>“Come in.” called Susan.<br/>He stepped inside, the walls, ceiling and floor were all solid white. The furniture was a variety of styles and colours ranging from antique to mordern. A small ornate table next to the bed held two framed photos, one was a teenage girl with dark hair in the embrace of an old man with shoulder length white hair. Beside it the other photo had the girl, the old man accompanied by a man and woman who looked to be in their thirties. The woman had a Jackie Kennedy style bouffant, and sixties style clothing.<br/>Susan spotted him looking at the photos, she picked up the second photo.<br/>“Barbara and Ian.” she said pointing at the thirty somethings.<br/>“Family?” he asked.<br/>“For a time.” she said fondly. “I went to school in 1963, they were my teachers.” she smiled. “I knew things I shouldn't know and didn't know things I should. They got suspicious, followed me home. When they stepped into TARDIS looking for me, that was that, Grandfather wouldn't let them leave.”<br/>“That old man...he's the Doctor?” asked Liam. Susan nodded. “When you said the Doctor wouldn't let them leave...”<br/>“He took off with them in the TARDIS, I tried to stop him. He was different back then.” she replied.<br/>“What happened to them?” Liam asked.<br/>“They traveled with us for a while, even after I left. They eventually went home.” replied Susan.<br/>“How do you know what happened to them if you left?” asked Liam.<br/>“I saw it in Grandfa...the Doctor's head.” replied Susan.<br/>“When she touched your head...you could see inside hers?” asked Liam.<br/>“Only what she wanted me to see. Only what I needed to see.” replied Susan with a hint of sadness.<br/>“Are you OK?” asked Liam.<br/>“I had a life...but that's over now.” replied Susan. “Come on, I'll show you the swimming pool.” Susan was out of the door before Liam could reply.</p><p>The Doctor activated the view screen, it was immediately evident the TARDIS hadn't landed on Eridistra. <br/>“Where are we?” she said aloud, before checking the space time co-ordinates. “Why have you brought us here?</p>
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<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter 7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Liam had taken off his converse shoes and was sitting on the edge of the swimming pool with his feet submerged in the water. His first trip in the TARDIS had been his last for 6 months. Red...the Doctor, that was going to take some getting used to...had never explained the TARDIS to him. Susan was talking about places she had been with the Doctor, her grandfather. It was a lot to take in. The regeneration into another person wasn't even the weirdest part, he himself had transformed. He couldn't work out what was bothering him, but something clearly was. <br/>“We've landed.” announced Susan, shaking Liam from his thoughts. <br/>“Come on.” said Susan, “I want to see where we are.” Liam pulled his feet from the water, grabbing his shoes on the way as he followed Susan. <br/>The Doctor was studying  a readout on the console as they entered the console room. <br/>“Where are we?” asked Susan looking at the viewscreen. The view showed the remains of a large city, the once grand buildings in ruin.<br/>“Planet 482 in the Wysmer System.” replied the Doctor. “Level 9 planet, should be inhabited.”<br/>“I'll check for comtaminants.” said Susan as she moved to the console. Liam took the opportunity to slip on his shoes. <br/>“I'm not detecting anything dangerous. It should be fine to go outside.” said Susan.<br/>“Snacks, we need snacks.” said Liam.<br/>The Doctor and Susan looked puzzled.<br/>“Who knows when we'll be able to eat.” You always forget about food.” he said addressing the Doctor. </p><p>They stepped outside, surveying the ruins as they did so. The Doctor decided to take a closer look, scanning with her sonic screwdriver.<br/>“This isn't natural deteriation. It's some sort of bacteria, bacteria that attacks stone, metal, brick and wood.” she said puzzled. “It's rapid, whatever it is.”<br/>“Bacteria? Is it...contagious?” asked Liam.<br/>“I don't think so. Better not touch it just to be on the safe side.” replied the Doctor.<br/>“Do you think this bacteria has affected the whole planet? asked Susan.<br/>The Doctor pondered for a moment.<br/>“Only one way to find out?” the Doctor said walking towards a nearby road barely visible through overgrown grass. “I wish I still had Bessie.”<br/>“Who's Bessie.” asked Liam quickening his step to catch up with her.<br/>“My car.” replied the Doctor wistfully.<br/>“We should get ground transport for the TARDIS...quad bikes.” suggested Liam.<br/>“Or dirt bikes?” suggested the Doctor.<br/>Susan laughed. <br/>It was a hollow laugh but they didn't seem to notice. She was trying to fit back into her life on the TARDIS but so much had changed since she was last here, she had changed. The Doctor was different too, her grandfather was gone but was still here at the same time. Their relationship was different now, it had to be of course but she missed him, she had thought about him so much over the years. She would have liked a chance to say goodbye, a little part of her always thought he would come back, but a different person came in his place. <br/>The Doctor was discussing modes of transport with Liam, they had a relationship, a friendship. Susan felt a tinge of sadness for the relationship she had once had, she needed to get to know this new Doctor. Her world had changed in an instant, David was dead...but she couldn't think about that, she had already decided to leave it in the past where it belongs, she was a new person now. A person who was going to embrace her new life.<br/>“Hoverboards.” suggested Susan.<br/>“Hoverboards...like on Back to the Future II?” asked Liam excitedly.<br/>“Not exactly, they're more like a cross between a surfboard and a manual scooter. You really need something to hold onto.” replied Susan.<br/>“Hoverboards, I vote for hoverboards.” enthused Liam.<br/>The Doctor smiled.<br/>“Hoverboards it is.” said the Doctor.<br/>They continued walking, Susan and Liam discussed the custom designs they could get for their hoverboards. Susan believed the TARDIS could replicate the hoverboards, the Doctor wasn't so sure. <br/>The Doctor was worried about Susan, she was too cheerful. It was difficult to find time to grieve when travelling in time and space, the Doctor knew that better than anyone, events eclipsed anything else, fast. The Doctor was adept as pushing down inconvenient feelings, dealing with them only when it became absolutely necessary, but Susan was different. She had always been emotionally expressive, unable to hide how she felt. That had been one reason the Doctor had steered her away from the Time Academy, she knew only too well how emotional outbursts were viewing by the Timelord elite. <br/>The Doctor wanted to say something to Susan, something that would help her, but she couldn't find the words so she said nothing. She had experienced the devestation of loss many times in her long life, maybe she had become somewhat numb to it. <br/>Susan's pain hung in the air, touching everyone in it's vacinity. Liam, usually so talkative and optimistic was struggling to maintain his positive attitude.<br/>The decision to take Susan with her all those years ago had been a purely selfish one, she hadn't wanted to explore the universe alone. Gallifrey had been their home, but she had wanted to leave for as long as she could remember, her disdain for Timelord society had infected Susan. She wondered if Susan would have been better off if she had been raised by someone else.<br/>“I see something.” said Susan. <br/>“Where?” asked Liam.<br/>“There. Up ahead, it's a building.” Susan replied.<br/>“Come on then. No time like the present.” said the Doctor striding towards the building.<br/>“No present like Time Travel.” quipped Liam.<br/>“You may change your mind when we visit some of Earth's history.” replied the Doctor. <br/>“I watched every episode of Horrible Histories.” replied Liam. “I'm prepared.”<br/>The Doctor looked at Susan, she was smiling to suppress a laugh. They both knew there was no possible preparation for the realities of Time Travel.</p><p>They drew near enough to the building to see it was different in construction to the ones they had seen earlier.  It was a mishapen dome, the exterior was a hotch potch of smooth and lumpy, it looked like a badly made upside down clay pot. In the distance they could see other siimilar domes scattered around.<br/>The Doctor pulled out her sonic screwdriver and scanned the structure.<br/>“It's made of mud.” she said. “No sign of bacteria.”<br/>“It's primitive compared to what we saw at the landing site, this bacteria has sent this civilisation back thousands of years.” said Susan.<br/>“So it was the only safe building material around?” asked Liam.<br/>“We're armed! Leave! Now!” called a voice.<br/>“Hello.” replied the Doctor.<br/>“Leave! Now!” repeated the voice.<br/>“I'm the Doctor.” said the Doctor.<br/>“We come in peace.” added Liam.<br/>We have no food.” answered the voice defensively.<br/>“We have food.” Liam replied. <br/>He slipped his rucksack off his shoulder, opened it and reached inside to retrieve a handful of snacks. <br/>“I'll leave them...over here.” He placed them close to the mud building.<br/>The owner of the voice, a biped but clearly not human, tentatively moved into view holding a crudely made dagger made out of a femur. <br/>Liam was surprised to see an alien despite having seen many in the last six months. He needed to work on his preconceptions, he should know better.<br/>From behind the alien another smaller figure appeared, moving with the first as though a shadow. They gradually shuffled their way to the snacks, the first figure stepping in front of the snacks whilst the second bent down to scoop them up. The second figure ran back to the mud structure disappearing inside leaving the first facing the group.<br/>“What happened here?” asked the Doctor.<br/>“Invisible swarm.” replied the figure.<br/>“Invisible swarm...you mean the bacteria that destroyed the buildings?” asked the Doctor.<br/>“It came at night...many died.” replied the figure.<br/>“All this happened in one night?” asked Susan.<br/>The figure nodded.<br/>“What's your name?” asked the Doctor.<br/>“Elstran.” replied the figure.<br/>“Well Esltran, we want to help. What can we do?” asked the Doctor.<br/>“Few are left, we are starving.” replied Elstran.<br/>“When did this happen?” asked Susan. The Doctor turned to look at her suspecting what she had in mind.<br/>“Two seasons ago.” replied Elstran. “On Hekkanous Day.”<br/>“Thank you.” said Susan. “We will do everything we can to help.”<br/>Elstran nodded, turned and walked to the mud structure.<br/>“I know what you're thinking...” began the Doctor.<br/>“This happened in one night, you know this isn't natural. We have to do something.” insisted Susan.<br/>The Doctor sighed.<br/>“Hekkanous Day. At least we know when.” she said. Susan smiled.<br/>“Come on then, no time to lose.” said Susan already heading back towards the TARDIS.<br/>“Did you just quote me? The Doctor asked. Susan laughed.</p><p>Once back inside the TARDIS Susan made straight for the console and searched for 'Hekkanous Day'.<br/>“Hekkanous Day...global holiday on Gadin Nine...71 days ago.” Susan read aloud.<br/>“So if we go back 72 days, we what...warn them?” asked Liam.<br/>“We stop whoever did this.” replied Susan defiantly.<br/>“We don't know what caused this...laboratory accident, chemical warfare...” Liam trailed off.<br/>“Liam's right, we need more information.” said the Doctor gently. <br/>The Doctor moved to stand beside Susan, she did a search on Gadin Nine, displaying the information on the TARDIS viewscreen.<br/>Gadin Nine had been an advanced civilisation. They had harnessed clean, renewable energy early on which had powered all of their technological breakthroughs, they were on the verge of developing space travel when the bacteria had hit. The bacteria had spread from a central point on the planet's sole continent. A simulation showed the spread, within the space of a few hours the bacteria had infected every building on the continent, the only buildings unaffected had been on the surrounding islands. <br/>“Terrorism?” suggested Liam. “The island dwellers maybe.”<br/>“The bacteria affected them too, it just took longer to reach them.” the Doctor displayed images of the island's buildings, they had been made of wood and were reduced to small, dry splinters.<br/>“The whole planet, that's outside aggressors...war?” suggested Susan.<br/>“According to TARDIS records they had no contact with other planets or species. They were a level 6 planet of the verge of Level 7. This doesn't make any sense.” replied the Doctor. <br/>“What are level 6 and 7?” asked Liam. The Doctor pushed a button, splitting the viewscreen in two, one half displayed The Shadow Proclamation Planetary Classifications. <br/>“They were more advanced than Earth.” said Liam in slight disbelief. <br/>“Earth is Level 5.” said the Doctor.<br/>“Do we...I mean they ever advance?” he asked.<br/>“In time.” the Doctor replied.<br/>Susan did another search. The viewscreen changed.<br/>“Planet 482 of the Wysmer System formerly Gadin Nine...colonised by the Wysmer Corporation after the demise of it's inhabitants.” Susan read aloud. “Wysmer isn't a star system, it's corporate system. They filed a claim for ownership of the planet 10 days ago.”<br/>“Before the inhabitants are all dead?” said Liam. <br/>“According to Interplanetary Registry records they did a complete survey and there was no sign of intelligent life on the planet.” said Susan.<br/>“We need to know more about the Wysmer Corporation.” said the Doctor. “Are you up for another mission?” she asked Liam.<br/>“Are you suggesting another heist?” Liam asked with a smile.<br/>“What about the people on the planet?” asked Susan. “They need help now, they can't wait.”<br/>“If we do this right they won't need help at all. We can go back and change it but we need to know exactly what we are dealing with.” replied the Doctor.<br/>“And if we don't do this right?” Susan asked. “If we can't stop Wysmer?”<br/>“Those people have already lost, all we can do for them is relocate them. If everything else fails...” the Doctor trailed off. Susan nodded.<br/>“OK, we need everything we can find on Wysmer Corporation.” said Liam.</p><p>They spent several hours acculmulating information on the Wysmer Corporation. As a large inter-galactic corporation there was a lot of information on their various Corporate headquarters throughout the galaxies. Finding their data processing centre locations hadn't been as difficult as expected, they had from time to time conducted satisfaction surveys which had all tracked back to one location. Their plan was to infiltrate Wysmer's data processing centre.</p>
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<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Interlude: TARDIS Shenanigans</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Too much is at stake, you must sleep.” insisted Susan. The Doctor had shrugged at Liam's pleading expression. <br/>He had reluctantly followed Susan along a corridor to a room she had decided would be his. It was a plain white room similar to Susan's but without the collection of furniture. Instead it had a black cube for a bedside cabinet beside a similarly designed bed. It would do for now, but he had already decided he would need a new colour scheme. He jumped on the bed intending to spend the next few hours mentally planning his new decor, within a few minutes he was asleep.</p><p>Susan turned from Liam's room intending to return to the console room but the corridor was gone. Instead was a door, it opened to reveal her room, she stepped inside. Behind her she heard the door softly close. Tears streamed down her face, she hadn't realised she needed to cry. She moved to the bed and slumped into it. The silent tears transformed into loud sobs. She feared they would never stop. The room blurred, and then began to spin. She closed her eyes.</p><p>Barbara and Ian sat opposite each other in matching armchairs reading books as they did most evenings. They had quickly settled into a routine after they had married which had become ritual over time. Time. It was novel even now to live, their lives in sequence day by day. Travelling with the Doctor had been an experience they valued but they had never regretted resuming their lives. <br/>They had been no more than friends before they met the Doctor, even on the TARDIS they had maintained that distance. But when they returned no-one else could understand what they had seen, they had been confidantes and eventually more. <br/>They had discussed writing a letter to Susan, they knew they would never see her again, but they had things they wanted to say. The logistics were the problem, a time capsule seemed like a solution but how to make sure Susan found it. Barbara had suggested writing a book including a code only Susan could decipher, but that was where they hit a problem. They needed a code complex and obscure enough that no-one but Susan would realise it was a code. After reading several code breaking books, they had abandoned the idea. <br/>Ian laughed out loud at something he had read in one of Barbara's history text books. Barbara peered at him over the top of her book, she had intended to give him a stern look but couldn't help smiling. She was in the unfortunately position of teaching history she knew to be inaccurate but being unable to correct it. Ian found the situation hilarious, he could teach theoretical science and get away with it.<br/>A rumbling noise filled the air, it was joined by a whining noise. Ian and Barbara looked at each other in surprise. They had always half expected a visit from the Doctor but the reality was still a shock. The TARDIS materialised in the centre of the room. As they watched the door opened to reveal a familiar white room, Susan's room. On the bed lay an unfamiliar woman, sobbing. Images filled their heads. They watched as Susan and David were ambushed, David's death, Susan's abduction and finally her regeneration.<br/>“Susan.” Barbara said realising who the sobbing woman was. She stood up to walk to her and then hesistated. Stepping into the TARDIS was a risk, she reached out for Ian's hand. <br/>“Into the breach once more.” said Ian taking Barbara's hand. They stepped into the room.<br/>“Susan.” said Barbara softly.</p><p>Susan opened her eyes, at first she thought she was dreaming. Barbara and Ian stood in her room, older than the last time she had seen them but still recognisably them. Barbara moved to the bed and sat beside her.<br/>“We saw...in our heads...we saw what happened to David and you.” said Barbara.<br/>Susan sobbed and grabbed hold of Barbara in a tight hug. <br/>All the years since they had last seen each other melted away. Barbara and Ian had listened as she talked about David and their life together. She asked about their lives. The plan for a time capsule had delighted her, she had looked them up and found they had written books. Barbara's book had been contraversial, suggesting a few of the official histories were inaccurate, she knew of course, she'd been there. Susan had read their books repeatedly over the years, but she couldn't tell them, they hadn't written them yet.<br/>Barbara talked about her frustration teaching history she knew was wrong. Susan had suggested she write a book, she knew that she did or would, so what was the harm.<br/>“Grandfather is gone.” Susan said quietly.<br/>“What do you mean gone?” asked Ian.<br/>“Regenerated, over a dozen times, he...she is a completely different person.” Susan replied.<br/>“That many.” said Ian. “We knew about some of them, we have contacts...but over a dozen...”<br/>“How long has it been...I mean since we travelled together?” asked Susan.<br/>“For us, 18 years.” replied Barbara. “Much longer for you. None of us are the same people we were.”<br/>“Did Grandfather talk about me?” asked Susan.<br/>“You know your Grandfather, but we could tell he missed you.” replied Ian.<br/>Susan gave a weak smile.<br/>“I know it must be hard for you. But the Doctor is still in there.” said Barbara.<br/>“You should ask about his...her exploits on Earth.” suggested Ian with a knowing smile.<br/>“Get to know this Doctor.” agreed Barbara. <br/>Susan smiled.<br/>“Can I visit you again...I mean if the TARDIS...” stammered Susan.<br/>“Of course, we will always be here for you.” said Barbara. Ian nodded in agreement. <br/>“I think it's time we were off. Don't want to be dragged off around time and space again...not that there is anything wrong with...” Ian stammered.<br/>Susan laughed.<br/>They each gave Susan a hug and stepped out of the TARDIS back to their normal, day by day lives.<br/>Susan watched them until the door closed, then fell asleep.</p><p>Whilst Liam slept TARDIS set to work on his room. She liked to design rooms, unfortunately she didn't often get the chance. The Doctor had a habit of overriding her controls and designed the rooms for the companions, often to the their horror. <br/>Liam had some very strong but conflicting idea's about what he wanted. She had lulled him to sleep, now they were going to redesign the room together. Entering Liam's dreams, she guided him psychically to the Architectural reconfiguration system. <br/>“Where am I?” Liam asked.<br/>“Architectural reconfiguration system.” replied the Doctor's voice.<br/>“Architectural reconfiguration...can I design buildings...like in Minecraft?” asked Liam.<br/>“You can redesign your room.” replied the Doctor's voice.<br/>“Can I have a jukebox, with vinyl records, not cd's?” asked Liam.<br/>“What colours?” asked the Doctor's voice.<br/>“The records? Oh the jukebox, bright colours.” replied Liam.<br/>“What texture and colours do you want for the walls?” asked the Doctor's voice.<br/>“Something...bright...but not too bright and something...industrial like metal.” replied Liam.<br/>“I have a wide range of beds, bunk beds, hammocks, water beds, chaise lounges, zero gravity beds...” asked the Doctor's voice.<br/>“Zero gravity beds, I can float in bed, wouldn't I hit the ceiling?” asked Liam.<br/>“Zero gravity beds are chambers where you are suspended in mid air while you sleep.” replied the Doctor's voice.<br/>“Cool, I want a Zero Gravity bed.” replied Liam. “And shelves, I want lots of shelves and...” Liam reeled off a list of requirements.<br/>TARDIS guided Liam back to his dreams and set to work reconfiguring his room. <br/>The walls were aged bronze with built in intuitive lighting that changed colour according to the occupants mood. A large jukebox stood in one corner, it had red blue and yellow accent colours around the inner casing. A large shelving unit stood against one wall. The floor contained a large colourful rug. TARDIS would replace Liam's bed with the Zero Gravity bed when he was awake.</p><p>Susan's room had been preserved ever since she left, TARDIS had known Susan would return one day and would need the room to be the same. <br/>Susan turned in her sleep, beside her on her beside table a new framed photograph appeared beside the two framed photographs that were already there. The new photograph showed David and Susan Campbell smiling on their wedding day.</p><p>There was one more thing TARDIS wanted to do, she concentrated on specifications and functions. This was going to be her best yet. The design was similar to the last, but gone was the yellow glow to be replaced with red. TARDIS added a new function, one that was desperately needed, a communication link to her. Finally it was finished, she concentrated on the console.</p><p>There was an audible ding on the other side of the console. The Doctor walked around to investigate, there sitting wrapped in a red bow was a brand new sonic screwdriver.</p>
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<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Chapter 9</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Susan watched Liam and the Doctor's progress on the viewscreen display. It had been decided at the planning stage that Susan would co-ordinate the heist from the TARDIS. </p><p>Liam's first task was to hack into the security system without alerting security. He thought of all the heist movies he had watched, hacking security was always accompanied by dramatic fast paced music and often against the clock. In reality hacking was time consuming even with advanced tech, there were alarm trips to avoid that took careful negotiating. </p><p>“Su...Blue...” whispered Liam into his comms remembering Susan had insisted on being called Blue for the heist. “Slight hitch...”</p><p>“Tell me what you need Yellow.” replied Susan.<br/>“There's a fail safe, I can't disable the alarm without setting off the alarm.” replied Liam.<br/>“Red? Did you hear that?” asked Susan.<br/>“On it Blue.” replied the Doctor. </p><p>The Doctor had been hiding in a secluded spot on the other side of the building waiting for the all clear. She scanned the building looking through windows into well lit interiors. There were several large rooms full of lines of individual desks with clear perspex like screens between them. There were no personal items on desks, nothing to distinguish one desk from another.</p><p>“Human production line.” the Doctor muttered to herself.<br/>“I didn't catch that.” said Susan in her ear.<br/>“Just talking to myself.” replied the Doctor.<br/>“You still do that?” asked Susan rhetorically.<br/>“Just loud enough to get your attention but not loud enough to make out the words.” said Liam.<br/>“Annoying isn't it?” replied Susan.<br/>“Yes! I've kinda gotten used to it.” said Liam.<br/>“Will you too shut up so I can concentrate?” said the Doctor sternly. </p><p>There was audible giggling over the comms. The Doctor ignored it. What she needed was an interior alarm to set off, something low level security, she spotted what she was looking for, a storage room door with an access panel tucked away in the corner of one of the large rooms. <br/>“Blue, I can set off a low level alarm from here, security should see it as a nuisance and reset. It should be enough time for Yellow to disable the system.” said the Doctor.</p><p>“I need 50 seconds, maybe 60.” replied Liam.<br/>“What happens if you disable the alarm before they reset it?” asked Susan.<br/>“The alarm stops.” replied Liam.<br/>“I'll run interference.” said the Doctor. “I got that right, run interference?”<br/>“You got it right.” replied Liam in a bored tone of voice.<br/>“What kind of interference?” asked Susan suspiciously.<br/>“I'll set the alarm off again when they reset it.” replied the Doctor.<br/>“That'll work.” said Liam.</p><p>“OK, so we have a plan of action. Are you read...” Susan was interrupted by the blaring of an alarm.</p><p>Liam worked manually re-routing connections whilst listening intently for a change in the tone of the blaring alarm. He paused when the alarm ceased, working quickly while it blared. Finally his work was done.</p><p>“Finished Blue.” he said in the comms.<br/>“Just waiting for security to clear, they are hanging around waiting for the alarm to go off again.” replied the Doctor. The sound of a distant alarm was audible over the comms.<br/>“That wasn't me.” said the Doctor.<br/>“It was me, I set off an alarm in the execute suites.” said Susan.<br/>“How?” asked the Doctor.<br/>“Liam patched me into the system, I have full control.” replied Susan.<br/>“That's genius.” said the Doctor.</p><p>“Yellow, I have the building schematics, I can direct you to the data core.” stated Susan.</p><p>Liam could hear a hardness in Susan's voice that hadn't been there before. She gave directions in clear concise sentences, safely conveying him to the data core but her communications were cold. He racked his brain for something he may have said that upset her. Had his tone been dismissive, he wasn't sure? There was nothing he could do about it right now, he needed to concentrate on collecting the data from the core. There would be a lot of it, he hoped he had enough space on the data collection devices he had brought. </p><p>The door to the data core was in front of him, there was of course an access panel. Liam sighed, slipped his rucksack off his shoulder and retrieved the code hacker. Heists usually filled him with excitement, but this one had lost it's allure. He was going through the motions. An alarm sounded in the distance.</p><p>“Distracting security, they were heading your way Yellow.” stated Susan.<br/>“Thanks.” Liam replied weakly.</p><p>He set to work transferring data. The minutes ticked by slowly, he wanted this heist to be over. His mind drifted back six months to when he had first met the Doctor or Red as he had known her. <br/>He had stepped inside that blue box, head dropped, expecting nothing more than a place to hide. The floor had been the first thing to indicate this was no ordinary box, the floor was pale grey, but quickly gave way to a dark brown, inset with yellow lit hexagons. The floor sloped upwards, he had raised his eyes to see a ramp leading to a round control centre. The walls were a mass of interlocking hexagons containing an intricate pattern of overlapping circles. He had walked up that ramp and stood in awe at the control centre, it was a mass of buttons, dials and levers, with a large honey coloured hexagon column rising out of it's depths. </p><p>The Doctor had called it a console, she had also stroked it affectionately. She had rambled about the box, called it something he couldn't comprehend at the time. There had been a brief conversation about travelling, he had said he had always wanted to travel. The Doctor had smiled, activated the controls and the most goddamn awful noise had filled his ears. </p><p>There had been that one trip in the TARDIS, and they had left it parked, invisible, in a meadow with a strange assortment of grazing animals. It was then he had seen his first alien, an odd looking creature, 3 feet tall with tentacles too numerous to count. The alien's name was unpronounceable, to him at least, the Doctor had had no problems. He had listened as the Doctor had negotiated a ride to the nearest port where they were going to “hitch a ride” on a ship. </p><p>How did that make sense, “hitch a ride” when they had just parked the Doctor's ship, had she explained? He couldn't remember, she hadn't make much sense.<br/>“Where was I...why not...well that's not fair...how did I...” she had turned to look at him, “Oh that's how...so I have to...”</p><p>A memory leapt into Liam's head, he was standing by the console, the Doctor was talking fast about space ports and medieval medicine. <br/>“...shert term memory loss, it's temporary...usually. Anyway this will maintain...” <br/>He remembered a brief sensation of pain in his arm, his hand immediately went to the spot, he rubbed. Had she injected him, he couldn't remember?</p><p>Liam had lept from one adventure to another for the last six months, he hadn't stopped to process any of it, now as he waited for the data to transfer he began to panic. What was he doing, heists, hacking security, stealing data? This wasn't him, how had he got here? </p><p> He had trusted her instinctively, now he wasn't so sure of his instincts. Liam wondered what the Doctor was doing right now, his job was to collect the data, what was she doing, she hadn't said and he had not thought to ask? Now it was all he could think about, he could ask her now of course, but then there was Susan.</p><p>Susan's emotions were all over the place, just when he had adjusted they changed again. As stable as the Doctor's emotions were, Susan's were unstable and uncomfortably strong. They hung in the air even when she had left the room, clinging like fog.</p><p>Liam sunk to the floor, he felt drained. He recognised the feeling, he had felt it before, it was part of a familar pattern. The highs and lows of his life, he would feel on top of the world, optimistic, anything was possible then the dam would break. He would have doubts, doubt himself, doubt those closest to him. This would pass of course, it always did, but right now the timing was problematic, he had to finish this heist. </p><p>He forced himself to his feet and checked on the data flow. It was almost finished, it should have taken longer. He checked his watch, more time had passed than he realised, had he zoned out, it sometimes happened during the lows? Taking a deep breath he watched the data transfer icon run it's animation, counting each time it repeated. Finally it finished, he retrieved the data device from the port and stashed it in his rucksack with the others.</p><p>“Blue, I'm finished.” Liam said. “Heading to the rendezvous.”<br/>“Understood Yellow. Red hasn't finished yet.” replied Susan.<br/>“Does...does she need help?” asked Liam.<br/>“I am almost finished Yellow.” replied the Doctor. “Meet you at the rendezvous.”<br/>She had bypassed Blue, Liam realised it wasn't the first time, she had done the same thing earlier when she had set off the alarm, was that what was bothering Susan? </p><p>Liam shouldered his rucksack and set off for the rendezvous point. Ten minutes later he was sat on a public bench, funny how everywhere they went had public benches, it hadn't occurred to him before. The Doctor always chose somewhere commonplace as the rendezvous, public benches, cafes, an art gallery. </p><p>That last one hadn't really worked out, he didn't know what he was supposed to do in an art gallery, he had been conspicious to say the least. He liked art that looked like it's subject, abstract art confused him. The gallery had had one piece he kinda liked, it was a sculpture of a creature he didn't recognise, with several limbs protruding at random from a gangly torso. He had stood in front of the sculpture for 15 minutes drawing the atttention of a security guard, fortunately the Doctor had finally showed up at the rendezvous. </p><p>“That looks nothing like a Heridonian kiro.” she had said before taking his arm and leading him away.<br/>“You're late.” he had said.<br/>“I had a bit of trouble, we need to get out of here.” she had replied. They had had to run from a group of angry locals, the Doctor never did tell him why. He smiled at the memory. Travelling with the Doctor had always been fun, he hadn't questioned any of it, just gone along for the ride. But now everything felt different. </p><p>The Doctor arrived a few minutes later.<br/>“No problems?” she asked.<br/>“None.” he replied with a fake smile. He had promised himself he wouldn't fake being OK anymore, but here he was again trying to make everyone else feel better.<br/>“Good. Blue, we're heading back.” she said into the comms. </p><p>Susan was at the console studying the viewscreen display when they arrived back at the TARDIS. The Doctor walked to the console and stood beside her. <br/>“I'm going to take a shower.” announced Liam as he disappeared through the door to the TARDIS interior.</p><p>“Did you find anything useful?” asked Susan coldly.<br/>“No, it was always a long shot.” replied the Doctor.<br/>“You sidelined me.” said Susan accusingly. The Doctor sighed.<br/>“I'm easing you back into travelling in the TARDIS. You know...” began the Doctor.<br/>“Easing me back in. You have no idea who I am now, what I have lived through. I am not the same child you abandoned...” Susan's replied angrily.<br/>“I didn't abandon you.” interrupted the Doctor.<br/>“It felt like it.” replied Susan.</p><p>“I gave you a normal life, that's what you wanted.” said the Doctor.<br/>“You didn't ask me what I wanted. You decided for me, just like you always did.” replied Susan bitterly.<br/>“Do you think I wanted to leave you, I was doing what what best for you?” replied the Doctor.<br/>“You were doing what was best for you!” yelled Susan.<br/>“Travelling in the TARDIS wasn't right for you, I realised...” began the Doctor.</p><p>“What does that mean, not right for me?” asked Susan accusingly.<br/>“You begged me to go to Coal Hill School, you wanted to stay. I dragged you away.” replied the Doctor.<br/>“You misunderstood.” said Susan quietly. “I wanted a better understanding, we never stayed anywhere long enough to really see.”<br/>The Doctor didn't speak.</p><p>“No apology?” asked Susan sarcastically.<br/>“I made the decision to leave you behind. I thought of all the situations you were placed in, all the turned ankles, the fear in your eyes and I chose something else for you. I made that choice as the adult...” <br/>“I am the adult in the room!” yelled Susan. “You have never grown up! You just run away, never see what happens next. I lived what happens next, you have no idea the mess you leave in your wake.” <br/>“I'm sorry. I know what you have lost, the hurt you are feeling...” began the Doctor.<br/>“Do you?” asked Susan. “Do you really?”<br/>“Yes.” replied the Doctor quietly.</p><p>Susan looked into her eyes, and for the first time saw the pain the Doctor kept locked away.<br/>“You changed, you aren't the person I knew.” said Susan quietly.<br/>“So did you.” replied the Doctor. “You would never had yelled at me like that.”<br/>Susan laughed.</p><p>“Was it so hard? Rebuilding I mean.” asked the Doctor.<br/>“Yes, it got worse before it got better.” replied Susan.<br/>“I kept track of you, saw your accomplishments.” replied the Doctor.<br/>“You know as well as I do that historical records aren't accurate.” said Susan.<br/>“They get some stuff right.” said the Doctor.<br/>Susan smiled.</p><p>“I have something to show you.” Susan said. “I can't figure out what it means.” Susan drew the Doctor's attention the the viewscreen display.<br/>“Is that...” said the Doctor.<br/>“Yes.” replied Susan.</p>
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<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Chapter 10</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Liam had gone straight to his room and fallen asleep listening to music. He was woken by an excited Susan. <br/>“We need the data.” she had said.<br/>He sleepily pointed in the general direction of his discarded rucksack. Susan had grabbed it and rushed out of the room. Still tired, he had fallen asleep again, waking up several hours later. When he finally entered the console room the Doctor and Susan were huddled together conspiratorially. They were in the process of planning a rescue mission but he had no idea who needed rescuing, they weren't elaborating at all.  At least the mood in the room was positive. He tried to keep up as they talked over each other in incomplete sentences.</p><p>“We'll need a method of containing...” said the Doctor.<br/>“It could be a good...” interrupted Susan.<br/>“There aren't that many of them, most likely...” said the Doctor.<br/>“I choose to be optim...” began Susan.<br/>“What are you talking about?” interrupted Liam exasperated from trying to understand.<br/>“We found a Time...” began the Doctor.<br/>“I found a Time Lord.” interrupted Susan.<br/>“A Time Lord?” asked Liam.<br/>“One of our species.” explained Susan, “I was able to use the security access to read internal communications, look.” she indicated the viewscreen display.</p><p>Liam moved to the display and read a series of communications on the screen, they were shipping documents, for ingredients and equipment. He failed to see the significance.<br/>“I don't understand, it's a bit weird but...” he said.<br/>“See there...” said Susan pointing at one word on the screen, “Jaded Fruit is the closest thing in the Universe to a fruit from our home world.”<br/>“It's a peculiarity of the Time Lord physiology that we enjoy the taste. There's a reason it's called Jaded.” explained the Doctor.<br/>“So they have to be getting it for one of your people, I get it.” replied Liam. “But they wouldn't bother for a prisoner would they?”<br/>“It does loosen the tongue, but there are easier methods.” replied Susan. The Doctor turned and studied Susan's face.<br/>“I obviously missed a lot.” said the Doctor.<br/>“Needs must.” replied Susan.</p><p>“Er, no idea what you two are talking about but, this isn't a prisoner, agreed?” said Liam.<br/>“We can't be sure of that. Time Lords are...” Susan trailed off.<br/>“Time Lords are like politicians, their own self interest comes first.” said the Doctor. Susan nodded in agreement.<br/>“So they're bad guys?” said Liam.<br/>“Nuanced.” replied the Doctor.<br/>“Bad guys.” said Liam nodding. Susan laughed.<br/>“You may be right, Liam, but we need to know for sure.” said Susan.<br/>“So what's the plan?” he asked.</p><p>They outlined a simple plan. According to the scraps of data they had found, the Time Lord was located at a luxury hotel in the floating city of Penri. <br/>“A floating city?” queried Liam.<br/>“It s all the rage in the 62nd Century, not very practical though.” replied the Doctor.<br/>“So what happens if you get to close to the edge? Does a cat push you off?” quipped Liam.<br/>“You need to be careful making jokes like that, it's considered racist in most of the universe and Catkind are very nasty when provoked.” said the Doctor.<br/>“Catkind? There's a race of Cats?” asked Liam.<br/>“They are bipeds, comparable to humans in size.” explained Susan. “And very clever.”</p><p>“Back to the plan.” said the Doctor.<br/>“The hotel is in the centre of the city here.” she pointed at an area on a 3D map representation of the city. “<br/>“I'll go in the front door like a boss.” said the Doctor.<br/>Liam laughed.<br/>“Like a boss?” he managed to say through bouts of laughter.<br/>“Are you going to do what I think you're going to do? Susan asked.<br/>“I'm going in the front door as a guest.” stated the Doctor.<br/>“You're going to bluff your way in.” replied Susan.<br/>“Won't that get the staff in trouble?” asked Liam. The Doctor looked sheepish. “Can't you just go back in time and book?”<br/>“It's complicated.” said the Doctor.<br/>“It's difficult to pull off being a VIP if you have to book first. Hotels have a tendency to contact your office to ask about accommodations.” said Susan.<br/>“Why do you have to be a VIP?” asked Liam.<br/>“Because regular guests can have their booking cancelled if a big corporation decided to book an entire floor.” replied Susan. <br/>“I know you don't like it, but it's the only way.” said the Doctor. Liam nodded reluctantly.</p><p>“And once again, back to the plan. I will sabotage the air conditioning, and you two will enter the hotel as maintenance.” explained the Doctor. “We will need to deal with the real maintenance...”<br/>“Intercept the call.” said Liam excitedly. “I saw it in a movie or was it reruns of Mission Impossible. Well anyway, you tap into the phone line and answer the call about the A/C.” <br/>The Doctor smiled.<br/>“They don't use phones but the principle is the same. I think I have...” the Doctor trailed off and strode across the console room to a wall. She pressed and it opened up to reveal a storage area.<br/>“I know I have a...ah there you are.” she said to herself. “This should work, I found it on an abandoned spaceship.” the Doctor picked up a plastic looking box the size of a hardback book.<br/>“What does it do?” asked Liam.<br/>“It's a remote communication device. It detects communications and 'taps in' and boosts the signal, designed for exploration of remote areas.” explained the Doctor.<br/>“Odd it being left behind.” said Susan.<br/>“Easily overlooked in a hurry.” replied the Doctor.</p><p>“OK, so the plan. I go in through the front and disable the Air Conditioning, you two intercept the call and arrive as maintenance. Once we are all inside we search.” said the Doctor.</p><p>Two hours later Liam and Susan were hidden in an alley close to the hotel. <br/>“I'm going in.” said the Doctor over the comms.<br/>“Roger, over.” replied Liam.<br/>“Don't do that.” replied the Doctor., slight agitation in her voice.<br/>“Sorry, thought I d give it a try.” replied Liam sheepishly.</p><p>Liam and Susan listened over the comms as the Doctor approached reception.</p><p>“I trust my room is ready.” said the Doctor.<br/>“Would you remind me of your name please?” the receptionist asked.<br/>The Doctor let out a loud sigh before speaking.<br/>“The, Honourable, Jane, Smith.” the Doctor replied adding emphasis to each word.<br/>The receptionist was visibly flustered. <br/>“Please give me one moment.” the receptionist said.</p><p>“Is it going wrong?” whispered Liam.<br/>“Probably getting the manager.” Susan whispered in reply.</p><p>After a minute of silence another voice was heard over the comms. <br/>“Welcome to the Nebula Cluster Hotel. I'm Ken Ritz, I'll be your personal liaison during your stay. Please allow me to check you in.”</p><p>“That was easy.” whispered Liam.<br/>“Always is.” whispered Susan.</p><p>“The Honourable Jane Smith. I apologise, we don't seem to have an address for you.” said Ken.<br/>“My address is classified for security purposes and must not appear in the register.” replied the Doctor.<br/>“Oh, yes. I understand. What payment method will you be using?” replied Ken.<br/>The Doctor handed over a plastic disk. Ken's eyes lit up at the sight of it, he waved it in front of a red light affixed to the reception desk which immediately turned green. He smiled.<br/>“I will arrange for your luggage...” Ken had trailed off when he failed to see luggage.<br/>“My luggage is following.” replied the Doctor.<br/>“I see.” replied Ken. “Please.” he said gesturing towards a key entry lift with his hand.<br/>The Doctor looked at the lift dismissively before walking towards it. Ken followed behind her reciting a list of amenities the hotel had to offer. </p><p>Five minutes later she was finally alone in her room.<br/>“I thought he would never leave.” she said into the comms. “I'll give him time to get back to reception before I sabotage the air conditioning.”</p><p>“The Honourable Jane Smith?” asked Liam. “I'm amazed that worked.”</p><p>“The name isn't important, it's all about the attitude.” replied the Doctor.</p><p>“So a title doesn't matter?” asked Liam.<br/>“It depends on the title.” said Susan.<br/>“I don't understand.” replied Liam.</p><p>“The Emperor has no clothes.” said the Doctor. </p><p>“OK, I get it.” he replied. “It's better to be someone they haven't heard of.”</p><p>“I think that's enough time. If I can just find the...got it.” said the Doctor over the comms. “The air conditioning is offline.”<br/>Susan activated the communication device, it emitted a crackling noise, immediately followed by a random series of beeps. The beeps were replaced by music, the music faded, giving way to a voice.<br/>“That was The Flowers with The Stars Whisper, next up...” the voice crackled and disappeared.<br/>“Was that supposed to happen?” asked Liam.<br/>“It's receiving all frequencies, I'll try to fine tune.” replied Susan. The device jumped to another frequency as she made adjustments.<br/>“Experiencing severe turbulence.”<br/>“I need this shifted by...”<br/>“trol we are experiencing...”  <br/>“tingales...”<br/>“bulence..”<br/>“What was that?” asked Liam. </p><p>“Is there a problem?” asked the Doctor over the comms.<br/>“The communication device keeps frequency jumping.” replied Susan. “I can't get any control.”<br/>“We know why it was left behind.” said Liam.<br/>“Plan B, wait 10 minutes then go in.” replied the Doctor.<br/>Liam's heart lurched, they had never had to improvise on a plan before. <br/>“Is that a good idea?” he asked.<br/>“It's be fine, just act fed up.” replied the Doctor.<br/>“Shouldn't be too difficult.” muttered Liam.<br/>“It's getting very warm in here, I'm going to try to get a look at the mystery guest.” said the Doctor. </p><p>The Doctor knocked on the door registered to the Wysmer Corporation. A man answered.<br/>“I reported the A/C.” said the man before the Doctor could speak.<br/>“Do you have ice, just a little...” the Doctor said whilst trying to enter the suite. “It's so hot, I think I may faint.”<br/>“Oh let her have some ice. What harm will it do?” came a voice from inside the suite. The man stood aside to let her enter.<br/>“Thank you, it's so warm...” she said before faking a faint.<br/>“Oh you poor child.” said the voice again. <br/>The Doctor felt something wet on her face, she continued to act the part, slowly opening her eyes to a familiar face.</p><p>“There you are, I wondered if you would track me down.” said the familiar voice of the Meddling Monk.<br/>“How...” she managed to say.<br/>“Surprised to see me, I wasn't expecting that.” the Monk said.<br/>“I thought you had died.” she said quietly.<br/>“In the Time War? Well of course, I made sure to avoid that altogether.” said the Monk.<br/>“How do you look the same?” she asked.<br/>The Monk appeared shocked at the question.<br/>“How long has it been since we met?” he asked.<br/>“Lifetimes.” the Doctor replied.</p><p>“What's happening?” asked Liam.<br/>“I don't know. Shush listen.” replied Susan.</p><p>“You must have thought I'd forgotten about you.” said the Monk in a harsh tone.<br/>“I didn't think about you at all.” she murmured.<br/>“You stranded me!” he yelled.</p><p>“She's in trouble!” exclaimed Liam.<br/>“Wait.” said Susan calmly. <br/>“We need to help her!” said Liam desperately.<br/>“We wait and listen.” said Susan with authority.<br/>Liam looked Susan in the eye. Her gaze held steady.<br/>“We wait and listen.” she repeated.</p>
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<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Chapter 11</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The Doctor didn't speak. It had been so long ago that she had stranded the Monk, she had almost forgotten he existed. She surveyed the room looking for an escape route, the exits were all covered by armed men in black suits.</p><p>“I can see you aren't used to facing your past.” said the Monk coldly.<br/>“I could hep you.” whispered the Doctor.<br/>The Monk laughed.<br/>“You still don't understand do you? I'm not a prisoner here. They aren't guards, they're my security.” he said.<br/>“Maybe they're both.” whispered the Doctor.<br/>“You came here to rescue me?” asked the Monk.<br/>The Doctor gave a slight nod. The Monk roared with laughter.<br/>“How did you manage to outsmart me?” he asked rhetorically before laughing again. “You don't understand why you're here do you?</p><p>The Doctor surveyed the room again. What she needed was a distraction, she would bide her time until an opportunity presented itself.</p><p>“This encounter was by design, but then our previous encounters were too. You chancing upon my plan once, bad luck. Twice? I know Time Lord interference when I see it.”<br/>“It was coincidence.” said the Doctor.<br/>“All those encounters you had, The Master, The Rani, even old Chronotis, didn't you think it too much of a coincidence?” <br/>“I have never worked for the Time Lords.” said the Doctor quietly. <br/>No?  They claim not to interfere but they send you to do their bidding.” said the Monk.<br/>The Doctor didn't respond, he didn't know about the Division, he couldn't.<br/>“You are wondering how I know about your work with the Division.” said the Monk. “They didn't cover their tracks well enough. It must have been a surprise when you finally ran into yourself. I arranged that of course. A little pull of a thread here and there.”</p><p>The Doctor said nothing. Was the work of the Division that obvious, had she been that blind?</p><p>“And when their work got noticed, they had to change tactics. They needed plausible deniability, what is more plausible than than an agent who doesn't know they're an agent.”<br/>“I am not an agent of the Time Lords.” said the Doctor indignantly.<br/>The Monk roared with laughter.<br/>“How many times have you done their bidding, their unseen hand steering you where they wanted you to go?”</p><p>The Doctor's mind reeled, could it be true? She didn't think so, but then she wouldn't would she. The Time Lords were gone now, but had she been their puppet all along? </p><p>“The one time you knew you were working for the Time Lords...” began the Monk.<br/>“The Daleks.” said the Doctor.<br/>“They came unstuck there, I'll admit that. Oh, I wish I could have seen their faces. They created the very war they were trying to prevent.” said the Monk with obvious enjoyment.</p><p>The Doctor remained silent.</p><p>“The Time War, you put a stop to that sure enough. You're a backfiring weapon, Doctor.” <br/>“Why am I here?” asked the Doctor.<br/>“You still don't understand do you?” asked the Monk.<br/>"Why don't you tell me?” asked the Doctor defiantly.<br/>“In time Doctor, all in good time.” replied the Monk. “Now where was I? Backfiring weapon, yes that's it.”</p><p>The Doctor sighed.</p><p>“Had enough already? We've only just began.” <br/>“I'm busy, places to be.” said the Doctor.<br/>“After all the trouble I went to to get you here.” said the Monk.<br/>“You needn't have bothered.” quipped the Doctor.<br/>“Oh but Doctor, it was necessary. You travel around the universe interfering in matters that are none of your concern with no thought of the harm you are causing.”<br/>“I help people.” protested the Doctor.<br/>“Does it bring you comfort to believe that with all the death and destruction in your wake?” asked the Monk.<br/>“I only go where I am needed.” replied the Doctor.<br/>“Is that so?”</p><p>The Doctor avoided eye contact with the Monk. She wanted to be somewhere else, anywhere else. Self reflection was something she had always avoided, it brought nothing but pain. </p><p>“Your first visit to Skaro? Did that help? Is the universe a better place?” asked the Monk accusingly. “The Daleks believed they were alone in the universe until you arrived. You unleashed the Daleks on the universe, you are ultimately responsible for the Time War.”<br/>“I couldn't have known.” said the Doctor quietly.<br/>“You couldn't? You have all of the Time Lords historical archives at your disposal.”<br/>“My TARDIS...the navigational controls are faulty, I can't control...” stammered the Doctor.<br/>“And you thought it fitting to render my TARDIS to that diminished state?” bellowed the Monk.</p><p>The Doctor didn't respond.</p><p>“You don't know what you're doing. You're like a child with a very dangerous toy. And you stranded me for my 'meddling', the sheer hypocrisy!”<br/>“So you aligned yourself to the Wysmer Corporation to what, trap me?” asked the Doctor angrily.<br/>“I'm not aligned to the Wysmer Corporation, I am the Wysmer Corporation.”<br/>“Why?” asked the Doctor.<br/>“Why? For you, to lure you. I studied you. You fight injustice wherever you find it, you are the defender of the underdog. I gave you an evil corporation to fight. And here you are.”</p><p>“Susan.” said the Doctor quietly. “Why involve Susan?”<br/>“Because you need to be taught a lesson and poor, dear Susan is part of it.” </p><p>In the alley Liam looked at Susan, her face was a mask. <br/>“What do we do?” he whispered.<br/>“Nothing.” she replied in a whisper.</p><p>“She did nothing to you, you never met her.” <br/>“She is a casualty, Doctor. A casualty of your meddling in things you don't understand. You left her in your wake as you have so many others.”<br/>“I left her for her own good.” protested the Doctor.<br/>“Who are you to judge what is best for her?” asked the Monk.<br/>“I raised her.” replied the Doctor.<br/>“That gives you the right to abandon her to her fate on an alien world?”<br/>“I was always going back for her.” said the Doctor.<br/>“On her deathbed? Really Doctor, did you expect to be welcomed with open arms?”</p><p>The Doctor concentrated on her comms, hoping to hear from Susan, the comms remained silent. She thought she had heard whispering earlier but couldn't be sure, she couldn't be sure the comms were functioning.</p><p>“My intervention may have spared you.”<br/>“What about Susan, your intervention killed her husband?”asked the Doctor accusingly.<br/>“That was unfortunate.” replied the Monk.<br/>“She had a life, you snatched it away from her, she can never go back.”<br/>“Maybe, maybe not.” replied the Monk.<br/>“What does that mean?” asked the Doctor.<br/>“You don't understand the possibilities of time travel, the endless complexities.”<br/>“And you do? You tried to change fixed events, it's against the Laws...”<br/>“The Laws of Time. The pompous Time Lords petty rules to absolve themselves of responsibility.” interrupted the Monk.</p><p>The Doctor was about to argue in favour of the Time Lords but she couldn't. She had also found the Laws of Time too rigid.</p><p>“What do you think Time Travel should be used for?” the Doctor asked.<br/>“To fix mistakes. Take Earth's First World War, 20 Million dead, another 50 Million dead from the Spanish Flu, a direct consequence of the war. And the Second World War a consequence of the First, another 75 Million dead. Almost 150 Million dead from one incident.” <br/>“But the ripples...” began the Doctor.<br/>“Ripples, worse than 150 Million dead? If it's worse you fix it, but not to try...” the Monk trailed off.</p><p>The Doctor shook her head.</p><p>“Is it any different to what you do? You spend so much of your time in your past. A good deal of your life happens before I was born. Who knows, maybe I am a result of your interference in history.” said the Monk.</p><p>The Doctor remembered the first time she met the Monk. His TARDIS was much more advanced than hers, why hadn't she considered he was from a later time? Because it shouldn't have been possible. The Time Lords worked to keep all the Time Lord interactions temporally compatible, meeting a future version of another Time Lord was problematic. Had the Time Lords intervened to stop the Monk, was he right about them? She didn't want to believe it, she banished the idea from her mind.</p><p>“I know what you're thinking. If you went to my past you could prevent me being born.”<br/>“I wasn't thinking that, I wouldn't.” replied the Doctor defensively.<br/>“I would have. I once considered doing the same to you, can you imagine if I had tried? Would it even be possible?” the Monk mused. <br/>“We should never have met...” began the Doctor.<br/>“Have you forgotten dear old Professor Chronotis, you should never have met him either?” interrupted the Monk.</p><p>The Doctor didn't respond.</p><p>“You really were the perfect choice, even now, faced with the facts, you can't accept the Time Lords manipulated you.”<br/>“If everything you say is true, the Time Lords are gone. Why do this now?” <br/>“Because you can fix things. Everything I did to get you here can be fixed with one single act. Just one, kill one person to...”<br/>“No!” replied the Doctor.<br/>“Not even to save Susan's husband?” <br/>“This is the trap.” said the Doctor resignedly.<br/>“Everything can go back as it was, everything that brought you here will be fixed. One person to save millions.” <br/>“There is another option.” said the Doctor. “I can go back and stop you.”<br/>“Go where, do what? You could make it worse. No. This is your last chance Doctor. Stummior Square 32419651066, one life.”<br/>“No.” replied the Doctor defiantly.<br/>“Next contestant. Susan, your choice.”</p><p>The Doctor grabbed at her headband, turning off the comms.</p><p>In the alley the comms had gone quiet. Liam looked at Susan, her gaze was fixed on the ground.<br/>“What are you going to do?” asked Liam quietly.<br/>“The right thing.” replied Susan.<br/>“I'm not sure I know what that is.” replied Liam.<br/>Susan reached out a hand and patted Liam's comfortingly.<br/>“We should get back to the TARDIS.” Susan said. <br/>“What about the rendezvous?” asked Liam.<br/>“The Doctor will head back to the TARDIS.” stated Susan. “We should too.”</p><p>The Doctor wasn't sure if the comms had been working, she hoped Susan hadn't heard the offer. The Monk was laughing.</p><p>“What if she doesn't take you up on the offer?” asked the Doctor.<br/>“What if she does?” asked the Monk. “Hadn't you better run off back to your TARDIS to stop her?”<br/>“This was your plan all along? It makes no sense.”<br/>“Not to you, maybe.” replied the Monk.</p><p>The Doctor rose to her feet and left the hotel room. She could hear the Monk laughing as she ran along the corridor to the stairs. Would Susan do it to save David? She didn't know, she didn't know Susan any more. The Susan she had raised wouldn't have, she was almost sure of that, almost.<br/>Once out of the hotel she ran. The distance between her and the TARDIS felt like light years, fear spurred her on as she ran harder and faster than she ever had before.</p>
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<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Chapter 12</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Liam and Susan hurried to the TARDIS.<br/>“Are you sure she will go to the TARDIS and not the rendezvous?” asked Liam.<br/>“I'm sure. You heard what he said. She'll want to stop me.” replied Susan.<br/>“So you are going to do it?” asked Liam.<br/>Susan smiled at the question.<br/>“I told you, I will do the right thing.” she replied.</p><p>They rounded a corner, the TARDIS stood in front of them. Liam kept pace with Susan. He wanted to know what she planned. He liked Susan but ultimately his allegiance lay with the Doctor, would he try to stop her if the need arose, he wasn't sure. There was one thing he was sure of, he was glad he hadn't been given that impossible choice.</p><p>Susan approached the TARDIS door, unlocked it and usher Liam inside. He walked to the console and hoovered there, waiting to see what Susan would do. He turned his head to look for her but she wasn't inside the TARDIS.<br/>“Susan!” he called.<br/>“It's OK Liam, just wait there.” came Susan's voice in reply.</p><p>Outside the TARDIS Susan stood beside the open door waiting for the Doctor. She was trying to think what to say when the Doctor arrived. During her time as an advisor to the interim government she had had to persuade people to take her advice, she had quickly mastered diplomacy. Now she was mentally preparing a wordy speech for the Doctor. </p><p>Susan was mentally debating between two words when the Doctor ran into view. The speech forgotten, Susan spoke.<br/>“What kept you?” it sounded harsh. Susan mentally berated herself, that wasn't what she was going for.<br/>“You're here.” said the Doctor breathlessly.<br/>“I'm here.” said Susan, suddenly stumped for words.<br/>“How long have you been here?” asked the Doctor. <br/>“Ten minutes.” replied Susan, “You can ask Liam, he's inside.</p><p>The Doctor stepped inside the TARDIS, Liam was standing at the console watching the door.<br/>“What's happening?” he asked.<br/>“Did Susan touch any controls?” the Doctor asked.<br/>“She stayed outside. What's happening?” he replied.<br/>“Just wait there.” the Doctor said.<br/>Liam sighed.</p><p>The Doctor appeared through the open TARDIS door.<br/>“I don't know who he is but he has you figured out. You don't trust anyone, not really.” said Susan.<br/>The Doctor looked embarrassed.<br/>“It's been a long time, I wasn't sure.” said the Doctor.<br/>“I learnt a lot while you were away, like actions mean more than words.” replied Susan. “If I had stepped inside the TARDIS you could never be sure. You realise this was part of the Trap, to make you doubt those around you.”<br/>The Doctor nodded soberly.<br/>“We have to figure out how to stop him.” said Susan.<br/>“I have a plan.” said the Doctor.<br/>“Really?” asked Susan.<br/>“Well half a plan, part of a plan. It's a work in progress, Come on.” said the Doctor.</p><p>They stepped inside the TARDIS. Liam breathed a sigh of relief.<br/>“Is everything OK?” he asked.<br/>“We need to stop the Monk?” said the Doctor.<br/>“Who's the Monk?” asked Liam, realisation dawned on him. “Oh, that was the Monk.” he said indicating his comms. “If he is Wysmer we just need to know when Wysmer started, right?”<br/>“It's a star...” the Doctor was interrupted by a beeping sound from the console. She pressed a button, the face of the Monk appeared on the viewscreen display.</p><p>“Ah there you are, I see you are all reunited. I am disappointed Susan but not surprised.” the Monk said.<br/>“What do you want?” asked the Doctor.<br/>“Just a courtesy call Doctor. You call me a meddler, but you don't see the full picture, you never did. The true power and responsibility of time travel. I will do what you could not. Farewell Doctor.” the viewscreen went blank.<br/>“That means...” began Liam.<br/>“Yes, we have to stop him.” said the Doctor, hurriedly trying to trace the source of the transmission.<br/>“We have coordinates.” saidSusan. “Stummior Square 32419651066.”<br/>The Doctor looked at Susan. <br/>“Are you sure?” The Doctor asked still tracing the transmission, a smile played on her lips.<br/>“Yes, see it's the...” began Susan.<br/>“You always were quick.” said the Doctor gesturing for Susan to enter the coordinates. <br/>The Doctor set the controls, the honey coloured central column rose and fell, they were in pursuit. <br/>“He's landed.” said Susan. </p><p>Within in a minute they had landed too. The Doctor activated the viewscreen, an image appeared of a small square with two stone pillars, similar in appearance but discernibly different.<br/>“Where is he?” asked Liam.<br/>“There.” said the Doctor pointing at the display.<br/>“I don't...” Liam said before seeing the Monk emerge from one of the stone pillars. “I...”<br/>“It's disguised.” explained Susan. “Our TARDIS used to do the same thing but it got stuck.”<br/>The Monk hurried to the other stone pillar. <br/>“They are both...” began the Doctor. “He's wouldn't.”<br/>“I don't understand.” said Liam.<br/>“They are both the Monk's TARDIS.” stated Susan, eyes fixed on the display.<br/>“What does that mean?” asked Liam.<br/>“Watch.” replied Susan.</p><p>A second younger version of the Monk emerged from the second pillar, smiling at his older self before being propelled backwards into the pillar. The older Monk turned towards them holding a blaster the Doctor recognised it as Raxacoricofallapatorian in origin. He smiled at them as he and his TARDIS faded from existence.<br/>“Is the Monk...dead?” asked Liam.<br/>“He will regenerate.” said the Doctor.<br/>“But he just disappeared.” said Liam.<br/>“He changed his personal time stream, very dangerous, strictly forbidden by the Time Lords.” said the Doctor. “The Monk we met no longer exists.”<br/>The younger Monk disappeared inside his TARDIS, a moment later it vanished.<br/>“Does that one no longer exist?” asked Liam, clearly very confused.<br/>“No, his TARDIS took off.” explained Susan.<br/>“But...” said Liam. “There was no...”<br/>“No what?” asked the Doctor.<br/>“Noise.” replied Liam. <br/>“It's a newer model.” replied the Doctor, indignantly. </p><p>Susan laughed before moving around the console close to where Liam was standing. She activated a miniature screen set into the console. <br/>“The timeline has reverted back, David is alive.” she said quietly.<br/>“And you?” asked the Doctor. “Are you alive on Earth with David.”<br/>“Yes. This means...” began Susan. “What about Liam?”<br/>“What about me?” asked Liam.<br/>“The Monk's interference in the timeline created your meeting with the Doctor.” said Susan gently.<br/>“Once we open those doors, the original timeline reasserts itself.” explained the Doctor.<br/>“Will I remember?” asked Liam.<br/>“I don't know. I don't think so.” replied the Doctor.<br/>“Will...will you remember?” Liam asked the Doctor.<br/>The Doctor didn't answer.<br/>“So we just don't open the door.” said Liam, desperation in his voice.<br/>“For how long?” asked Susan gently.</p><p>Liam crumpled to the floor.<br/>“Just a little while, I just want a little time.” he sobbed.<br/>Susan sat down beside him and hugged him.</p><p>Two hours later Liam was ready to face reality.<br/>“If you remember, find me.” he said to the Doctor. “Promise me.”<br/>“I promise.” replied the Doctor. “Everyone ready?”<br/>Susan and Liam both nodded.<br/>The Doctor opened the doors.</p>
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